Shaza Fatima calls for inclusive AI safety standards

July 07, 2026 (MLN): Artificial intelligence systems must be developed and deployed in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter, with meaningful human oversight maintained in both civilian and security applications.

Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja made these remarks while speaking during a thematic session titled "Safe, Secure and Trustworthy AI: Interoperability and Compatibility of Approaches" at the Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance held in Geneva, APP reported.

She said AI safety represented a shared global interest, but maintained that the process of defining what constitutes safety needed to be transparent, inclusive and representative of all nations.

Safety standards and benchmarks for trustworthy AI, she noted, were increasingly being set by a small number of countries and technology companies through national frameworks that left much of the developing world out of the conversation.

She said safety was not purely a technical issue, pointing out that language, culture and local context all play a role in shaping it.

Standards drawn up without input from developing countries, she cautioned, risked being handed down rather than adopted through genuine consensus.

Pakistan, the minister said, backed the development of AI safety norms through inclusive multilateral processes under the United Nations, where every country could take part as an equal stakeholder.

On interoperability, she said Pakistan favoured compatible AI governance approaches along the lines envisioned in the Global Digital Compact, adding that interoperability helps facilitate cross-border trade, research and data flows while still allowing different national regulatory systems to function alongside one another.

She cautioned, however, that interoperability should act as a bridge between governance systems rather than become a channel for a handful of countries to impose their rules on others.

Global AI standards, according to the minister, should be developed through open, collaborative standard-setting bodies that uphold safety, reliability, human rights, and linguistic and cultural diversity across the AI life cycle.

She also said trust in AI hinges on countries having the capacity to independently test, evaluate and verify AI systems, noting that this evaluation capacity remains concentrated in the countries where the technology originates.

Developing nations, she warned, should not have to depend entirely on external assurances of safety without any means of verifying them themselves.

She called for building up AI evaluation and governance capacity in developing countries through shared tools, technical cooperation and regional partnerships.

Safe and trustworthy AI, the minister said, should not mean safety for a select few while remaining opaque to everyone else.

She reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to working with international partners and the dialogue's co-chairs toward an inclusive, transparent and durable global framework for AI governance.

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