Lahore (TDI): United Nations Development Program, in partnership with Punjab Assembly, hosted a high-level discussion on social media’s role in governance, elections, and tech-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV).
Parliamentarians, media persons, civil society organizations, and experts from legal and digital community came together to discuss digital safety and inclusion.
Speaker of the Punjab Assembly, Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, chaired the session while the opening remarks were delivered by UNDP’s Assistant Resident Representative, Kaiser Ishaque. A total of 120 participants took part in the session.
#UNDPinPakistan, in partnership with @PunjabAssembly, hosted a high-level discussion with parliamentarians, CSOs, media, legal and digital experts, and academia on social media’s role in governance, elections, and tackling Tech-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV).
Led by… pic.twitter.com/p0zpN3rTSk
— UNDP Pakistan (@UNDP_Pakistan) March 18, 2025
The aims of the dialogue were to explore legal grounds and trace possibilities in policy advocacy regarding safer digital spaces.
“UNDP remains committed to strengthening Digital Safety and inclusion in Pakistan,” said UNDP Pakistan in a post on X.
UNDP regularly facilitates discussion on the evolving digital landscape in Pakistan.
It also engaged Punjab Assembly’s speaker last year to discuss fake news and how to ensure a more secure digital environment.
Of recent, the Punjab Government has shown inclination towards digitalizing various domains, administrative operations, and public infrastructure.
Read More: Digital Pakistan initiative gains global momentum
In parallel to these remarkable steps, digital safety takes center-stage. In the past five years, 1.8 million women in Pakistan have been the targets of cybercrimes of varying degrees.
In this context, the dialogue hosted by UNDP was both timely and crucial, as laws related to data protection and regulation of digital sphere are still in preliminary stages.
In Pakistan, the number of internet users is as high as 116 million. Last year, the World Economic Forum, observed that digitalization in Pakistan is empowering people towards financial inclusion.
Nuzhat Rana is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
