The Special Communications Organization (SCO) -- the telecommunications branch of the Pakistan Army -- is about to lay a fiber optic cable between Rawalpindi and the port cities of Karachi and Gwadar. The US$ 240 million project is in partnership with China's Huawei Technologies and was approved by the government on January 21. It will also connect with the PEACE cable in the Arabian Sea.

(Comment: In 2017, Major Gen. Amir Azeem Bajwa, the then Director-General of SCO, told a parliamentary committee on information technology that much of Pakistan's internet traffic was routed through India. This raised fears that sensitive data was vulnerable to hacking. According to local reports, that was when Bajwa sought approval for an alternative network to service Gwadar that avoided India.)