Hello Reader
This week, we got a full-fledged case study on how two big tech giants make life-or-death decisions!
Unfathomably, it's not about Silicon Valley instead, we're talking about Islamabad!
And yes, it's a case worth looking into...
It was the 1st of July, a signage crew showed up before the morning traffic at the remarkable 345 building, and unbolted a faded blue logo hung there for two decades.
It was Telenor Pakistan, ceasing to legally exist, folded entirely into Ufone (Let’s call it that for now until the merged entity gets a new name).
One could build on this, and so did I. Due to Pakistan's deteriorating economy, one multinational company after another is leaving the country, Microsoft included, which closed its 25-year presence here last year.
Being young in this country, watching this I started to wonder if this was just the pattern now, fewer places for people my age to actually walk into and build their careers.
Surprisingly, six weeks later, a very different scene plays out in the capital city. A nine-member delegation flew in and the Prime Minister himself unveiled Google's very first office in Pakistan.
Same city, same summer, two multinationals pulling in opposite directions. So what's actually going on here, and what does it reveal?
- Telenor: cutting its losses
This exit took two full years to finish. The Norwegians agreed to sell to PTCL back in December 2023, valuing the unit at roughly $490–530 million, a fraction of what Telenor once hoped to fetch.
It took until September 2025 for competition regulators to sign off, and the deal only closed on December 31, 2025 — Telenor booking an ~PKR 88 billion writedown in the process, mostly currency losses stacked up over 20 years.
Their own regional head said it plainly: low revenue per user, expensive spectrum, no regulatory path to consolidation. Even Easypaisa, the one piece they kept, is reportedly up for sale now too.
- Google: buying into the exact same market
Google finally has an address in Pakistan. This didn't happen overnight, it's been quietly building for ten years.
The decision to formalize with an office actually goes back to an April meeting in Washington, where Google's Karan Bhatia met Finance Minister Aurangzeb. An opening was expected by July. It slipped a few weeks.
So why open an office now, after ten years of doing this without one?
Because that decade quietly added up to...
- Rs 3.9 trillion in economic activity
- 960,000+ jobs linked to its programs
- a Chromebook assembly line running in Haripur, and
- Career-certificate scholarships scaling from 15,000 in 2023 to 150,000 this year
Coming back to the query: why does one tech giant walk away while another walks in, at the very same time, in the very same country?
The difference comes down to what each company would be left holding if things went wrong. Telenor owned towers, spectrum licences, subscriber contracts, capital sunk into the ground and priced in rupees.
When the currency slides, that value doesn't just shrink on paper, it's stuck there, impossible to move or hedge away. That's why the exit took two years and ended in a write-down.
Google is not exposed the same way. It does not need to own anything here - no towers, no licences, no rupee-denominated assets sitting on a balance sheet. What it needs is developers, a training pipeline, and a government willing to make the process easy, all of which can be scaled up or wound down without anyone booking a loss.
That's a far cheaper, far more reversible bet than a telecom licence.
So the real answer to "why now" is not optimism about Pakistan. It is that one company's business model and need made it hostage to local currency but the other’s does not.
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1. CARICOM Secretary General Joins Delegation to Haiti Ahead of Elections
When elections become possible only after security is restored, democracy itself becomes a security question!
CARICOM’s involvement in the OAS-led mission reflects a broader regional effort to connect Haiti’s electoral transition with security, humanitarian needs, investment and recovery, rather than treating the ballot box as an isolated political event.
2. UN Women Afghanistan Rep Warns Women Rights Crisis Is Deepening as Aid Collapses
The danger in Afghanistan is no longer only the loss of rights, but the normalization of their disappearance!
UN Women warns that shrinking aid is now threatening the women-led organizations that provide some of the last remaining lifelines for Afghan women, turning a rights crisis into a crisis of institutional survival.
3. Pakistan Assumes UN Disarmament Conference Presidency
In an era of nuclear anxiety, diplomacy matters most when the room contains the states capable of changing the stakes!
Pakistan’s presidency of the 65-member Conference on Disarmament places it at the chair of the UN’s principal negotiating forum on arms control, nuclear risks and the weaponization of outer space as the 2026 session moves toward its conclusion.
4. OTS Secretary General Joins Great Hun-Turkic Kurultaj Cultural Gathering in Hungary
Culture can preserve what politics alone cannot: a sense of belonging across borders!
The OTS Secretary-General’s participation in Hungary’s Kurultaj, which brought together more than 27 Turkic communities, highlights how heritage, historical memory and people-to-people ties are increasingly becoming instruments of regional connectivity between the Turkic world and Europe.
5. SCO Launches ‘Kind-Hearted Journey’ to Treat Children With Heart Defects
The most persuasive form of regional cooperation is often measured not in communiqués, but in lives changed!
The SCO’s “Kind-Hearted Journey” turns healthcare diplomacy into something tangible, aiming to provide free treatment to 500 children with congenital heart defects over five years while building medical expertise and institutional links across member states.
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What we're watching next
Upcoming multilateral events you should look out for
When: 1-4 September 2026
Where: Vladivostok, Russia
- SCO Heads of State Summit
When: 1st September 2026
Where: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Russia is far from being isolated since 2022.
In fact, a thriving and sprawling forums' calendar tells a tale of deep-running influence.
READ "The Architecture of Influence: Russia’s Global Forum Ecosystem" HERE
By Muhammad Mahad Samija
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Fragmented anti-Taliban armed groups are gaining ground.
Without unity, can they truly threaten Taliban's grip over Kabul?
READ "The Guns Are Back: Can Armed Resistance in Afghanistan Shake the Taliban?" HERE
By Farkhund Yousafzai
Some more by the author: Pakistan-Saudi-Turkiye Defense Pact: Who Gains Most?
Here
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People copy what others admire and desire.
And when this 'mimetic desire' comes in contact with a well-curated online political movement...
READ "When the Desire to Believe Meets Politics" HERE
By Aqsa Fazilat
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