Senior leadership from Data Vault Pakistan met with H.E. Ali Mustafa Dar, the newly appointed Advisor to the Punjab Chief Minister on Artificial Intelligence and Special Initiatives, to present collaboration proposals aimed at accelerating the province’s AI agenda with the office of AI Punjab. The Data Vault delegation included Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Syed Zeeshan Ali, Board Advisor Muddasir Saleem Malik, and Chief Innovation Officer Ahmed Hamdhan.
COO Syed Zeeshan Ali outlined a proposed partnership to provide sovereign AI infrastructure that would support the provincial government’s ambitions to position Punjab as an AI-enabled hub in South Asia. H.E. Ali Mustafa Dar, who was appointed to the newly created ministerial-level role earlier this month on a pro bono basis, has been tasked with driving innovation-led policy, promoting technology adoption and implementing AI-based initiatives across Pakistan’s most populous province. Dar, who holds software engineering qualifications from University College London and UMIST, has publicly stated his ambition to make Punjab the most AI-enabled province in South Asia.
For a province home to over 120 million people, the deployment of sovereign AI infrastructure could accelerate digitisation across governance, healthcare, education, agriculture and public safety. Stakeholders at the meeting framed these opportunities around how Punjab AI capacity can be built using local, secure infrastructure and targeted government partnerships.
Data Vault Pakistan, founded and led by CEO Mehwish Salman Ali, is headquartered in Karachi and operates the country’s first AI-ready data centre equipped with NVIDIA enterprise-grade GPUs. The company offers GPU-as-a-Service and sovereign cloud capabilities to enterprises, government institutions and startups, positioning itself as a cornerstone of Pakistan’s sovereign AI ecosystem that can support Punjab AI initiatives.
Recent collaborations highlighted by Data Vault include a landmark deal with Telenor Pakistan to launch the country’s first locally hosted AI cloud, a strategic partnership with U.S.-based Rafay Systems to enable Pakistan’s first Sovereign AI Cloud, and an agreement with U.S. data centre operator Datarocx expected to unlock substantial AI infrastructure investment. These partnerships were presented as building blocks to deliver secure, locally hosted AI services for provincial use.
The meeting indicates momentum toward a formal collaboration as Punjab advances its technology agenda. Data Vault’s proposals for sovereign AI infrastructure aim to provide the technical backbone that can help scale Punjab AI projects across public services and the private sector.
