This could be HUGE if Mr Chaudhry pulls it off right.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Fawad Chaudhry has been in the press a ton, lately. However, this time, it hasn’t been for the things he isn’t doing but the things that he is.
Earlier this week, Chaudhry launched a website to track moon sightings and effectively end the reign of Mufti Muneeb 👀👀👀
MoonSighting Pakistan launched….. https://t.co/1HSEzw7cMf
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) May 26, 2019
The site was launched to make sure that Eid would not depend on the moon sighting committee but a more scientific and accurate way of predicting and locking in the exact dates of Eid. Of course, moon sighting itself has been a super controversial topic, especially in the last couple of years. So taking up this task was a pretty risky move with regards to potential backlash from religious groups and fundamentalists.
And now, thanks to Fawad, it seems that Pakistan is finally arriving at a new age and it doesn’t stop there.
Chaudhry took to Twitter earlier today to announce a possible launch of mobile payments in Pakistan.
قمری کیلنڈر کے بعد اگلا بڑا چیلنج کریڈٹ کارڈ اور ڈیبٹ کارڈز کو موبائل فون پیمنٹ سے replace کرنا ہے، ٹیکنالوجی کی ترقی کیلئے ادائیگیوں (payments) کا آسان ہونا لازمی ہے، انشااللہٰ چند مہینوں میں آپ کی تمام ادائیگیاں بس کے کرائے سے گاڑی خریدنے تک موبائل سے ہوں گی۔
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) May 27, 2019
Fawad Chaudhry is now planning on bringing mobile payments to this country so people can start paying for their expenses using their mobiles. That means all future payments made through a debit or a credit card will be able to be made through one’s phone.
Think of it as Paypal for Pakistan
Paypal please
— Ammad Naseer (@iAmmadNaseer) May 27, 2019
But not exactly Paypal for Pakistan because PayPal has made it very, very clear that they’re not coming to Pakistan
Hi there, thank you for consulting PayPal. Firstly, I appreciate your interest in bringing PayPal to Pakistan and we're constantly looking for ways to expand our services to more but don't have any plans to announce an expansion to Pakistan at this tim… https://t.co/m2ZlQePU8X
— PayPal Support (@AskPayPal) May 27, 2019
The Minister said that the breakthrough came after launching the moon sighting site and based off of reactions on Twitter at least, it seems as though Pakistanis are pretty excited at the idea.
Great work. Best wishes.
More power to you.— Ziauddin Yousafzai (@ZiauddinY) May 27, 2019
This would be real change
— Ishaq Reza (@ishaq_raza) May 27, 2019
Zabrdast
— Hira Malik (@HiraMal68005717) May 27, 2019
That will be great step
— Ahsan Ali (@AhsanAli22326) May 27, 2019
Obviously, there are many steps before something like this can be brought to Pakistan and a much larger task than just setting up a website. Being so that Fawad is the Minister for Science and Technology, technically speaking, handling finances of the country wouldn’t even be in his territory it would be in the hands of the State Bank as opposed to an individual.
Paypal, for those of you who do not know, is pretty much the same concept of being able to make payments through one’s phone. Earlier this year, in fact, the California brand was all set to make its way to Pakistan however in May, Information Technology Secretary Maroof Afzal confirmed that due to internal issues, it would not be able to launch in Pakistan.
Now that Chaudhry has announced the bright idea, let’s see if he can manage to bring it to reality as he did with his site. It is nice that Chaudry is being so heavily celebrated but being so that he is the Minister for Science and Technology, he’s pretty much just doing his job. But again, to see someone actually doing their job for once and actually making the lives of Pakistanis easier is refreshing. But, we may just be getting ahead of ourselves. Until we see the true fruits of his labour we’ll just have to sit back and wait for it all to come together or, fall apart.
Have you heard the news? What do you think? Will Fawad be able to pull it off? Let us know what you think in the comments below. Love you.
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Cover photo source: Samaa/Security Surveillance