Governing Artificial Intelligence in Pakistan: Institutions, Policies and Regulation

Overview

This report examines how artificial intelligence is governed in Pakistan: who makes decisions, which instruments apply, how responsibilities are distributed across institutions and sectors, and what the public record shows about implementation. It covers January 2025 to 3 November 2026, with earlier material where it explains the current framework.

Across 17 chapters, it reviews the legal baseline, national institutions, the National AI Policy, data governance and WASL, standards and assurance, public procurement, sectoral regulation, federalism, rights and inclusion, and international and compute policy. It brings these together in a 23-entry governance register, an implementation assessment and scenarios to 2030.

The central argument is that policy coordination and announcements need to be matched by enforceable responsibilities, institutional capacity, public evidence and accessible remedies. Recommendations include data protection legislation, a public register of high-impact government AI systems, standard procurement clauses, functioning oversight and sector-specific work plans.

The study is based on publicly available records; no interviews were conducted. Findings about implementation reflect the evidence located at the review cutoff. An absence of public evidence does not, by itself, establish that no activity has taken place.