For technology companies, the super app is the holy grail: one application that becomes the starting point for a consumer’s digital life. Messaging brings people in every day. Payments, shopping, transport, financial services, and finally government services keep them there. Few companies in the world have managed to make this work at scale.
WeChat is the obvious example. It began with messaging and expanded into an ecosystem of payments, commerce and services. However, WeChat succeeded because the Chinese government banned WhatsApp and other messaging services.
Should Pakistan simply order a WeChat of its own? Our digital lives remain fragmented between messaging applications. WhatsApp is the top-ranked messaging platform by far. Among bank accounts and wallets, Easypaisa and JazzCash both claim 100 million cumulative downloads; among shopping platforms, Daraz is the local e-commerce leader. The government-related services portal, Pak ID, leads the way among government apps.
Pakistan has tried the super app route before. In 2017, Veon launched its application with Jazz, combining communications, content, offers and eventually financial services. Profit reported at the time that spending on the initiative had exceeded $100 million. Despite Jazz’s customer base and Veon’s financial resources, the application failed to become Pakistan’s WeChat and was eventually withdrawn.
Government-owned, it could integrate public services and keep sensitive national information within Pakistan’s jurisdiction
The lesson is important. Money and distribution alone do not create a super app. A telecom company can offer free data and spend heavily on acquisition, but it cannot easily persuade families, friends and businesses to abandon a messaging platform they already use every day. A super app first needs a compelling reason for daily engagement. Everything else follows. There is also a broader national issue.
Much of Pakistan’s digital communication, commerce and even official business passes through foreign platforms. Governments face risks when sensitive official communication and public records sit beyond their effective control. Where is the information stored? Who can access it? How is it preserved? What happens if a foreign platform changes its policies or becomes unavailable?
Some governments have responded by restricting the use of consumer messaging applications for official communication. France has directed ministers and staff towards approved secure systems rather than applications such as WhatsApp. Britain has issued guidance around the use of non-corporate communication channels for government business.
Pakistan should distinguish between consumer choice and official communication. There may be little logic in trying to force citizens away from WhatsApp. However, government communications, sensitive records and critical public data deserve stronger safeguards.
Pakistan already possesses many of the building blocks required for a broader digital ecosystem.
Nadra provides identity infrastructure, biometric verification and digital identity services. Its Nishan Pakistan platform allows regulated organisations to use services including fingerprint and facial verification, demographic verification and proof of life. These capabilities can help citizens establish identity without requiring Nadra itself to operate their banking, shopping or messaging applications.
The Pakistan Digital Authority, established under the Digital Nation Pakistan Act 2025, has a different role. It is responsible for the National Digital Masterplan, data governance standards, digital public infrastructure and coordination across government. A national data exchange layer could eventually allow government institutions to exchange information securely.
Raast provides another critical component: the instant payment rail.
Put these pieces together and Pakistan already has the foundations of a digital ecosystem: identity through Nadra, payments through Raast, government services through digital public infrastructure and financial services through banks and fintechs. The additional benefit of a super app is that, given the depth of individual data available, a personal credit score can be built quite easily. Based on the data available on WeChat, Chinese financial institutions can provide a credit limit of upto 200,000 yuan on the spot. Instant credit online or offline.
It is not rocket science to assume that a super app would be a game changer for Pakistan. Other than the convenience of a single app providing messaging, social media, payments, government services and keeping key data within Pakistan, the benefit of getting a behavioural credit score would materially change financial inclusion. But how realistic is this ambition? Why would this effort succeed while Veon’s $100 million play did not? How to convince existing customers to leave messaging services like WhatsApp , which now seems to be deeply embedded in our DNA?
Let us first address ownership.
A government-owned super app could integrate public services and keep sensitive national information within Pakistan’s jurisdiction. But concentrating identity, financial transactions, communications and government services in one application creates both trust and surveillance concerns.
A privately owned super app creates a different risk. One company controlling messaging, payments, commerce, lending and access to government services would accumulate enormous economic power and personal data. Pakistan could simply replace dependence on a foreign platform with dependence on a domestic one. The better model is therefore public-private.
The government should build and govern the rails: digital identity, payments, public-service APIs, and data-sharing standards. Private companies should compete to build applications and customer experiences on top of them. Neither government nor one private company should control the entire ecosystem.
The safeguards must also be clear. Collect data only when necessary. Customers should explicitly consent to sharing. Transactions should have audit trails. Identity verification should confirm identity without unnecessarily exposing an individual’s full personal record.
Pakistan does not need to spend billions trying to manufacture another WhatsApp. The Veon experience demonstrates how difficult it is to buy network effects. What Pakistan can build is something more useful: national digital rails it controls, official communications it can secure, and an open ecosystem in which multiple private companies compete to serve consumers.
If one of those companies eventually creates Pakistan’s super app, consumers will decide whether it is worth switching or not.
The writer is the chairman of the Pakistan Fintech Network
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, October 5th, 2026
