A Pakistani developer has launched Ask Pakistan, an independent artificial intelligence-powered platform designed to help people find information about government services through a single conversational interface. The platform, developed by Raheel Siddiqui, allows users to ask questions about a range of public services without having to search through multiple government websites individually. It is positioned as a central search interface for information covering areas such as identity documents, taxation, employment, education and social support, with responses based on information gathered from official government sources.
The project was developed following the launch of America.gov in the United States, which brings information from more than 29,000 government websites into a single AI-assisted portal for federal services. Ask Pakistan follows a similar information-search concept but operates independently and focuses on Pakistani government sources. Users can submit questions in English, Urdu or Roman Urdu, allowing the platform to serve people who may prefer different languages when searching for information about public services and government procedures.
Ask Pakistan says its responses are based only on official government websites and provide source information along with relevant next steps where available. The platform is designed to avoid producing an answer when its indexed sources do not contain the required information, rather than generating a response without supporting government information. Its public directory currently includes 212 federal, provincial and regulatory websites. These sources cover organisations and services including the National Database and Registration Authority, Federal Board of Revenue, Benazir Income Support Programme, Higher Education Commission, Federal Public Service Commission, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, provincial governments, police departments, utilities and courts. The platform’s homepage currently indicates that more than 5,000 pages from official sources are indexed for searches.
Privacy is another feature highlighted by the platform. Ask Pakistan says personal information such as CNIC numbers, phone numbers, email addresses, passport numbers and bank account numbers is removed within the user’s browser before a question is transmitted. The service also states that it does not retain conversation histories or connect questions to individual users. Some initial questions and answers may be cached for approximately one day, but the platform says personal numbers are removed before that information is cached. These measures are intended to reduce the amount of personal information transmitted while users search for government-related information.
The platform also supports voice-based questions. According to Ask Pakistan, microphone recordings are sent to Google’s Gemini speech service for transcription and are not stored by Ask Pakistan itself. This feature adds a voice interface to the platform’s text-based search capabilities, allowing users to submit questions without manually typing them. The availability of English, Urdu, Roman Urdu and voice-based interaction gives the platform multiple ways to access information, while its reliance on official websites is intended to keep responses connected to published government information.
Despite its government-services focus, Ask Pakistan is not an official government platform. The service does not have the authority or technical access required to submit applications, retrieve individual government records or complete transactions on behalf of users. It also advises people to verify information that can change over time, including fees, deadlines and procedural requirements, directly through the relevant official government source. This distinction means the platform currently functions as an information and search service rather than a government transaction portal.
Siddiqui has also described a longer-term possibility of expanding Ask Pakistan beyond information retrieval towards agentic government services. Under such a model, an AI system could potentially assist users with activities such as completing forms, booking appointments or tracking applications. Such capabilities would require secure connections with government systems and official application programming interfaces, neither of which are currently available to the independent project. For now, Ask Pakistan remains focused on helping users locate and understand government information through an AI-powered search interface, while directing users back to official sources for confirmation and any actual government transactions.
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