PR No. 155 Bilal Bin Saqib Urges New Civil Servants to Lead Pakistan’s AI Gover

Minister of State and Chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, Bilal Bin Saqib, delivered a powerful address to recent graduates of the Pakistan Civil Academy, calling on the next generation of civil servants to become the driving force behind Pakistan's AI-enabled governance transformation.

Speaking on the theme "Strengthening Governance through AI-Enabled Whole-of-Government Approaches," Mr. Saqib said Pakistan is entering a decisive era where artificial intelligence must move beyond personal productivity and become a tool of national transformation.

"AI is not coming to Pakistan one day. It is already sitting in your pocket," he said. "The real question is whether it will remain a tool of convenience or become a tool of national transformation."

He warned that Pakistan's governance model cannot continue operating at the speed of paper while citizens, markets and technology move at the speed of data and compute.

"A state that moves slowly in a fast world does not only lose efficiency. It loses trust," he said.

Mr. Saqib said whole-of-government reform means citizens should experience one coordinated state, not disconnected departments. He stressed that a widow, farmer, student, business owner or pensioner should not have to navigate a maze of offices, forms and repeated documentation to access public services.

"The citizen should not have to knock on ten doors to meet one state," he said. "Government should feel like a system that listens, remembers, responds and serves."

Referring to Pakistan's governance challenges, Mr. Saqib said the country must confront reality with courage. He noted that Pakistan ranked 136 out of 193 countries in the United Nations E-Government Development Index 2024, despite improving from 150 in 2022. He also referred to Pakistan's score of 28 out of 100 on Transparency International's latest Corruption Perceptions Index country data.

"These rankings are not a reason for despair. They are a call to duty," he said. "Every weakness is a reform agenda. Every bottleneck is a leadership opportunity. Every broken process is waiting for one officer with courage, competence and imagination."

Mr. Saqib said AI can help Pakistan shift from reactive governance to predictive governance. He cited examples including AI dashboards for flood risk, dengue hotspot prediction, school dropout early warnings, procurement anomaly detection, citizen service chatbots in Urdu and regional languages, and AI tools to simplify compliance and reduce leakages.

"This is the promise of AI in governance: not machines replacing humans, but humans finally having the tools to serve with speed, wisdom and precision," he said.

He emphasized that Pakistan's National AI Policy 2025 provides an important platform, but said implementation will determine success.

"Policies do not transform countries by themselves. People do. Institutions do. Civil servants do," he said.

Addressing the graduates directly, Mr. Saqib urged them not to see themselves as passive entrants into the system, but as reformers capable of changing it from within.

"You are not joining government merely to move files. You are joining government to solve problems," he said. "The file is not the purpose of government. The citizen is."

He called on every young civil servant to become AI-literate, understand data, privacy, cybersecurity and responsible AI, and use these tools to identify bottlenecks, simplify processes and guide their seniors towards practical reform.

Mr. Saqib also introduced the idea of "vibe coding for governance," saying civil servants do not need to be software engineers to become innovators. They need to understand public problems clearly enough to guide technology.

"For the first time in history, the distance between an idea and a prototype has collapsed," he said. "What once required a large team, a long tender and months of waiting can now begin with one officer, one problem and one clear instruction to an AI tool."

He challenged every graduate to identify one broken process in their first 100 days of service, map it, measure it, simplify it and propose an AI-enabled prototype with safeguards for citizen data, privacy and human accountability.

"Do not become a passenger in the system. Become a pilot of reform," he said.

Highlighting Pakistan's youth advantage, Mr. Saqib said the country's demographic potential must be matched with execution, integrity and innovation.

"Pakistan's youth are the seed. Governance is the soil. Technology is the water. Integrity is the sunlight. Implementation is the discipline that turns potential into destiny," he said. "Potential is a promise. Implementation is the proof."

He concluded by reminding the graduates that AI can assist judgment but cannot replace conscience.

"AI may become the brain beside you, but conscience must remain the heart within you," he said. "Be the generation that moves government from files to intelligence, from silos to missions, from delay to dignity, and from paper-based governance to AI-enabled public service."