Published on, Sept. 25 -- September 25, 2025 1:37 AM

There was a time when internet outages were treated as passing irritants. Today, the stakes are far higher. In a country where over 2.3 million freelancers rely on stable connectivity, where IT exports are touted as the growth engine, and where schoolchildren log on to learn, the internet has become the nervous system of daily life.

And yet Pakistan stumbles into another prolonged disruption. Officials blame damaged submarine cables off Yemen, saying repairs will take weeks. Industry insiders, meanwhile, are back to whispers about testing of a national firewall-suspicions the government has repeatedly denied, albeit later tacitly acknowledged as part of "cybersecurity measures." That ...