If patience is a virtue, then Pakistani internet users are currently the most virtuous people on the planet. We are living in a unique timeline where sending a voice note on WhatsApp feels like sending a pigeon across the border, you just hope it gets there eventually. 

Between the mysterious “firewalls,” the submarine cables that keep having bad days, and the official explanations that sound like science fiction, the digital experience in Pakistan has become a tragicomedy. 

Here is a look at our current reality, broken down by the five stages of digital grief.

Digital Pakistan: Where Loading… is a Full, Time Job

Remember the dream of “Digital Pakistan”? We were promised a cyber, revolution. We were promised high, speed connectivity. instead, we got the spinning wheel of death. 

In late 2024 and early 2025, the loading icon officially replaced Jasmine as the national flower of Pakistan. You sit there, staring at your screen, watching the progress bar move with the enthusiasm of a government employee on a Friday afternoon. 

The government says they are upgrading the “Web Management System” to protect us. But to the average user, it feels less like protection and more like the internet is being filtered through a sieve made of molasses. We aren’t just browsing; we are waiting professionally. If “refreshing the page” paid an hourly wage, we’d all be millionaires by now.

Endless Buffers and Broken Dreams

There is a specific kind of heartbreak that only a Pakistani understands: You are watching a cricket match, the bowler starts his run, up, and suddenly… buffer. By the time the video resumes, the match is over, the players have gone home, and your router is questioning its existence. 

Recent reports confirm that internet speeds have dropped by up to 40% in some areas. It’s not just Netflix; it’s everything. 

• WhatsApp Status: Uploading a photo of your lunch? Congratulations, it will be posted just in time for dinner. 

• Instagram: The Reels don’t scroll; they stumble. 

• TikTok: Actually, maybe TikTok buffering is a blessing in disguise? (Just kidding). 

It’s a saga of broken dreams where 4G acts like 2G, and 5G is just a myth we tell our children to help them sleep at night.

A Very Pakistani Problem

In any other country, if the internet goes down, people call customer support. In Pakistan, we check Twitter (sorry, “X”) to see if everyone else is suffering too. It is a collective trauma bonding experience. 

The explanations for these slowdowns are legendary. First, we heard it was a firewall. Then, we were told it was a “web management system upgrade.” And then came the classic: the submarine cable fault. 

For a while, the running joke was that sharks were chewing on the fiber optic cables underwater. It got so bad that the Chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) actually had to go on record in the Senate to clarify that sharks did not eat the internet cables. 

You know times are tough when the government has to officially clear the name of the shark community. It wasn’t Jaws; it was just a “technical fault” near Qatar. Sure, let’s blame Qatar. Why not?

A Tale of Trials and Tribulations

While we laugh to keep from crying, for the freelancers of Pakistan, this is a horror movie. 

Pakistan is home to one of the largest freelancer communities in the world. But lately, platforms like Fiverr and Upwork have been downgrading Pakistani sellers because they can’t stay online. There are stories of top, rated sellers losing their badges because they couldn’t reply to a client in time. 

It has reached a point where freelancers might need to start writing “Digital Wills.” 

“I, being of sound mind and slow internet, hereby bequeath my Fiverr account to my grandson, in the hopes that the file I started uploading in 2025 will finally attach by the time he graduates.” 

The IT sector is losing millions daily, not because of a lack of talent, but because the digital highway is currently a dirt road under construction. 

Even the WiFi is on Strike!

You know the situation is dire when even the VPNs stop working. The government recently extended the deadline to register VPNs, probably because even the registration website wouldn’t load. 

It feels like the WiFi itself has formed a union and is currently on strike. The router lights blink, but nobody is home. We toggle Airplane Mode on and off like we are performing CPR on our phones. We hold our devices up to the sky like Lion King, hoping to catch a stray signal from a passing satellite. 

But hey, we are Pakistanis. We survive everything. We survived the heatwaves, the inflation, and the cricket team’s batting collapses. We will survive the Great Internet Slowdown of 2026, too. We’ll just do it very, very slowly. 

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