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World Bank Greenlights $70 Million Loan for 'Connected Punjab' to Onboard 2.1 Million Citizens via Expanded Fiber Broadband
The Sindh government has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against the June 10 acquittal of MQM workers Rehman Bhola and Zubair Chariya in the 2012 Baldia factory fire case. Filed by Prosecutor General Shabbir Shah, the petition argues the SC verdict ignored key medical, eyewitness, and chemical evidence regarding the tragedy that claimed over 260 lives.
ND
by News Desk
2026-07-01
World Bank Greenlights $70 Million Loan for 'Connected Punjab' to Onboard 2.1 Million Citizens via Expanded Fiber Broadband

Detailed Report

  • The Funding Approval: The Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank has officially approved a $70 million loan from the International Development Association (IDA) to finance Pakistan's newly launched Connected Punjab Programme (CPP). This initiative forms part of a much larger $278 million digital framework, bolstered by $208 million in counterpart funding directly from the Government of Punjab. Operating in sync with the federal government's Digital Economy Enhancement Project (Deep), the CPP aims to structurally modernize Punjab’s broadband network, digital public service delivery, and electronic payment systems.

  • Slashed Barriers & Private Capital: A core milestone of the programme is targeting the bureaucratic and regulatory hurdles that historically slowed down private telecom infrastructure rollouts. The CPP intends to drastically reduce the average processing time for Right-of-Way (RoW) permits from 90 days down to just 21 days. By smoothing out these policy friction points, the World Bank projects it will mobilize at least $50 million in private capital investments, expanding fixed broadband coverage from 7.8 million to 9.9 million people across the province by June 2031.

  • AI Public Services & Closing the Gender Gap: Moving beyond basic internet access, the CPP is designed to fund shared government computing infrastructure to deploy scalable, AI-enabled public service delivery across local and provincial agencies. The project aims to reach 28.9 million citizens via digital governance by 2031. Crucially, the plan integrates gender-inclusive metrics, intending to lift the proportion of women actively utilizing digital government services from a low baseline of 19% up to 30%.

  • The Push for a Cashless Ecosystem: To drive economic formalization, the project will lay the infrastructure required to shift Punjab away from its heavy reliance on cash transactions. This includes setting up a localized Digital Invoice Management System alongside interoperable payment frameworks that directly link point-of-sale transactions with government fiscal reporting. The designated target is to have at least 350,000 citizens actively and regularly using cashless payment systems within the next five years.
Tagged:

#WorldBank #ConnectedPunjab #DigitalPakistan #BroadbandExpansion #FinTech #AIGovernance #PunjabUpdates #EconomicDevelopment
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