MoITT Reviews Applications as Pakistan Explores Sovereign AI and Cloud Infrastructure
The federal government’s Cloud First Policy has begun attracting interest from the private sector, with six cloud service providers submitting applications for accreditation, the National Assembly was informed.
The update was shared in a written reply by Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja in response to a question raised by MNA Syeda Amnah Batool. According to the minister, the applications are currently under evaluation by the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication (MoITT).
Review of Local AI Cloud Infrastructure
The minister told the House that MoITT has also examined the potential use of a locally hosted Artificial Intelligence (AI) Cloud and Data Centre established by Data Vault Pakistan. The facility, launched in November in collaboration with Nvidia, offers capabilities such as sovereign AI, GPU-as-a-Service, and AI Cloud infrastructure.
She noted that such infrastructure could support government digital services while ensuring data residency, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance, key priorities under Pakistan’s digital governance framework.
However, the minister clarified that MoITT has not yet been formally onboarded for production workloads related to the AI Cloud and Data Centre. Additionally, Data Vault Pakistan has not submitted an application for accreditation under the Cloud First Policy so far.
Potential Future Use Cases
Subject to government procedures, security clearances, and inter-ministerial consultations, the ministry may consider pilot projects and phased adoption of such infrastructure in the future.
Possible areas identified for utilization include:
- E-governance and digital public service platforms
- Cybersecurity initiatives, including Security Operations Centres (SOCs) and the national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT)
- Secure government data hosting and analytics
- Sector-specific AI applications
- Public sector AI research and innovation
Global Models and Policy Alignment
The minister emphasized that the initiative aligns with Pakistan’s National AI Policy and Cloud First Policy. She further informed the House that internationally, governments have adopted public-private partnership models to host sovereign digital and AI services.
Citing examples from the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, and the United Arab Emirates, she said these models demonstrate that sovereign AI infrastructure and global service provisioning can coexist under robust governance, security, and policy frameworks.
She added that developing such infrastructure would enhance Pakistan’s national AI compute capacity and support the country’s broader digital transformation objectives.
