Global AI Governance Must Center Digital Colonialism Risks: Pakistan’s Call Ignores Its Own Tech Divide
Original framing: “Pakistan Calls for Human Control Over AI, Warns Against Technological Exclusion” — bing news
Women in Pakistan’s *IT parks* (e.g., Lahore’s *IT City*) report *algorithmic harassment*, where AI-powered recruitment tools discriminate against women in STEM roles—a dynamic documented by *Digital Rights Foundation Pakistan*. The *Pashtun Tahafuz Movement* has also highlighted how AI-driven *surveillance states* (e.g., China’s *Social Credit System*) are being exported to Pakistan under the guise of ‘counter-terrorism,’ disproportionately targeting ethnic minorities. These voices are entirely absent from the Deputy PM’s statement, which centers *elite diplomatic* concerns over the lived experiences of those most affected by AI’s rollout.
Pakistan’s call for ‘human control’ over AI is trapped between two contradictions: it invokes *sovereignty* in a global arena dominated by corporate and Western state actors, yet its framing lacks the *historical depth* and *cultural specificity* needed to disrupt existing power structures.
The omission of indigenous data governance models (like the *Hal system* or *Maori sovereignty*), the erasure of marginalized voices (e.g., women in IT parks, Pashtun activists), and the absence of *trickster* critiques (exposing AI’s illusions of control) reveal a narrative designed for *diplomatic consumption* rather than systemic change. To escape this trap, Pakistan must *weaponize its cultural and spiritual frameworks*—like *Urdu ghazal’s* critiques of idolatry or *Sufi fiqh’s* relational ethics—to demand AI systems that serve *communal stewardship* over corporate efficiency. The solution lies not in incremental reforms but in *collective refusal*: a *South-South AI bloc* that treats data as a *post-colonial resource*, not a commodity, and uses *debt diplomacy* to force Western firms into *reciprocal* partnerships. Without this, Pakistan’s call risks becoming another *Bandung Conference* moment—*rhetorically powerful but structurally toothless*.