Pakistan is blessed with a very large number of intelligent, talented and innovative young people who can compete with anyone in the world. The rest of them become IT experts.
Here’s a list of the most amazing apps coming out of Pakistan in 2015, a bit about their young and influential founders – people to watch out for in 2016.
1) Tweediot!
What it does: This app makes your Twitter debates easy and fun with this app that automatically tweets insults to anyone who says anything you don’t agree with, even when you’re away.
Its sophisticated algorithm analyses your history to figure out what your political beliefs are, and which rival beliefs are most likely to make you angry. It also looks at your past tweets to build a database of insults you are most likely to use. Once it is set up, every time someone tweets something that would annoy you if you were reading it, the app will automatically find the filthiest insult from its reservoir and respond to them.
User review: ‘What I love about this app is that those filthy tweets appear totally to have been written and sent by me!’
Founder profile: With a degree in Ethics from Rawalpindi, Nadeem Naughty is a knotty young man with a lot of talents. Logic is not one of them. His message to the young people of Pakistan: ‘If you want to get heard, speak louder.’
Recommended for: PTI fans, patriotic youth, and social justice warriors.
2) PTV Noose
What it does: As Pakistan begins a campaign to celebrate life and liberty with more than 100 hangings in 2015, this news app – or should we call it a noose app – will collect stories and pictures of these hangings from all over Pakistan and put them on your palm of your hand.
Could we think of a better way to keep our young men way from the sadist ideology of violent extremism?
User review: ‘The great thing is that it doesn’t differentiate between the hanging of terrorism convicts and regular prisoners on a death row.
Founder profile: Liaquat Lash studied journalism from his dead mother’s ghost in the 1990s, and has since been an unemployed activist and media analyst on the internet. After the app failed in Saudi Arabia because of server overload, in 2015 he decided to start his venture in Pakistan. His message to Pakistanis: ‘Never underestimate the power of a deranged boy with a computer and a lot of free time on his hands.’
Recommend for: ISIS enthusiasts.
3) InYourFace for Facebook
What it does: This Facebook plugin will identify the Facebook users you are engaging with on your phone or computer who are in the same room as you, especially on the same couch, and move their notifications and messages to the top of your news feed, so that you don’t have put down your phone and talk to them.
Watch out for their upcoming short-distance learning feature, which will add a new digital dimension to classroom interactions between teachers and students letting them communicate exclusively through Facebook.
User review: ‘This plugin has helped me connect to my family and friends in new ways!’
Founder profile: While some of the smartest innovators in the Silicon Valley are college dropouts, this app’s founder Lateef Lighter is a step ahead of them. He dropped out from school after his math teacher plainly declined a request to stop eating his lunch. There was no looking back. Mr Lighter still can’t solve the simplest of math problems. His message to Pakistanis: ‘Always look at the Lighter side of life’.
Recommended for: Everyone.
4) Shadi Ki Pehli Raat
What it does: Although this app does pretty much nothing, it has taken Google Play Store by a storm! Enticed by the name and the picture of a bride waiting to happen, millions of 12-year-olds secretly downloaded this app in 2015 to find out what happens on a wedding night.
Most of those children uninstall the app because it says nothing they didn’t already know, the app remains a top trend in Pakistan.
User review: ‘I’m married, but I was curious to find out how my wedding night compares with the norm.’
Founder profile: Very little is known about Parveen Pambeeri, and many say she does not even exist. Insiders say she raised capital for her app herself, by selling religious apps. A spokesman for the company only said: ‘The email account you tried to reach does not exist.’
Recommended for: No one.