Benazir Killed. Democracy Dying. How Long Will Pakistan’s Sourcing Potential Stay Alive?
27th Dec. 2007: Its 6:06 pm (Pakistan Standard Time) and Benazir Bhutto, the former two-time prime minister of Pakistan, completes her speech at an assembly in Liyaakat Bagh, Islamabad, Pakistan, and rushes toward her bullet proof vehicle to be a part of the party promotional pre-election rally. The crowd, including the supporters of Benazir’s Pakistan People’s Party, was swinging to the heady tune of an imminent win in the coming elections due in January 2008. Exactly after 10 minutes, Benazir receives two bullets at her neck. Liyaakat Bagh again echoed, but this time because of a suicide attack by the killer of Benazir.
Pakistan, which could have been seen as a potential offshoring location for IT and BPO services, now seems to be in a real mess. Pakistan’s ambitions to provide services to the world were always thwarted because of frequent terrorist attacks, unstable political conditions, civil unrest against the present government, but Benazir’s assassination seems to have pulled the noose on a fledgling industry.
It was in 2005 when journalists first began to write about the country’s potential to be developed as an outsourcing location. And in August 2007, the country expected its IT exports to reach $10 billion by 2010 from $2.2 billion in 2007, according to the country’s software export board’s managing director Yusuf Hussain. He claimed that the country has got everything that is essential to compete with its neighbor India — one of the most favorite and matured outsourcing destinations — except an “image problem.”
But now, the questions that will be asked are: Will Pakistan ever be seen on the sourcing radar? Will it ever be discussed as an offshoring destination in the forums? Will the country ever be able to prove itself as a potential sourcing hub? These questions cannot be avoided for a country that recently put its optimistic intentions to be developed as an outsourcing hub.
I know for sure that more than 11 (fairly large) contracts have been snapped by outsourcers to Pakistan’s new-found BPO Industry. That is bad news yet companies will run from places which they feel are not secure, and hence may not have the long-term potential to deliver on their needs.