The Politics of Artificial Intelligence in Pakistan

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming integral to statecraft, yet its adoption in politically complex contexts like Pakistan is highly challenging. Against this backdrop, this study investigates the fragmented trajectory of AI integration in Pakistan’s cyberspace, drawing on eighteen experts’ interviews and documentary analysis. It reveals that AI governance is shaped less by coherent strategy and more by bureaucratic competition, foreign technological dependency and patronage politics. Despite a proliferation of policy frameworks and international partnerships, AI readiness remains largely rhetorical, undermined by siloed institutions, fragmented authority, and performative reform. The article identifies four interlocking dynamics: AI as contested political infrastructure, readiness as narrative rather than capacity, institutional turf wars and the outsourcing of core technical competencies. Rather than fostering resilience, AI in weak governance settings risks entrenching opacity and external control. This study contributes to critical debates on digital sovereignty and postcolonial techno-politics, urging a reimagining of who governs AI, how, and to what ends

Battle · Bureaucracy · Corporate governance · Governmentality · Narrative · Performative utterance · Politics · Sovereignty · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI