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Pakistan restarts VPN licensing in fresh bid to control online space

Date:
Thu, 13 Nov 2025 17:41:40 +0000

Description:
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has authorized five companies
to offer "lawful" VPN services, raising fresh concerns about user privacy and
internet freedom in the country.

FULL STORY

Pakistan's government has taken a significant new step in its long and often
controversial campaign to regulate the internet, officially launching a
licensing regime for Virtual Private Network (VPN) providers. 

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced on November 13 that
it has granted the first set of licenses to five local companies, authorizing
them to offer what it calls "secure and lawful" VPN services to the public. 

This move is the latest chapter in a multi-year effort by authorities to
regulate VPN usage , tools that have become essential for many Pakistanis to
bypass widespread censorship. 

Major social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), have been
intermittently or permanently blocked for months, forcing citizens and
businesses to turn to VPN services to access the global internet
freely.

For users, one of the immediate changes now is that they can use these
specific licensed services without needing to go through the previously
cumbersome process of registering their individual IP addresses directly with
the PTA. A new framework, old concerns 

While the government presents this as a measure to enhance cybersecurity and
provide regulatory convenience, the context of Pakistan's digital landscape
raises serious concerns for privacy advocates. 

Previous attempts to ban "unregistered" VPNs have faltered due to legal
challenges and public backlash, leading to this new, more structured approach
of creating a government-approved pool of providers. 

The core issue remains the potential for surveillance. By forcing VPN
providers to be licensed locally , the government makes it easier to compel
these companies to monitor user activity and hand over data. 

This stands in stark contrast to the policies of major international
providers, many of which have strict no-logs VPN policies and have previously
pulled physical servers from countries with intrusive data-retention laws,
such as neighboring India. 

Furthermore, this move is happening against the backdrop of reports that
Pakistan is working with China to develop a "Great Firewall" style internet
censorship system. 

A system of licensed, and therefore controllable, VPNs could be a crucial
component of such an infrastructure, ensuring that even citizens attempting 
to bypass censorship are funneled through state-sanctioned channels.

What does this mean for Pakistanis?

Pakistani citizens now have a choice: use one of the five newly licensed,
local VPN providers or continue using international, unlicensed services and
risk potential disruptions. 

The PTA's announcement frames the new system as a way to promote "regulatory
facilitation, user convenience, and enhanced cybersecurity across Pakistans
digital ecosystem." However, for many, the greater risk is not malware but 
the loss of anonymity and the potential for the state to monitor their online
activities. 

Digital rights experts have consistently warned that such regulatory efforts
could severely harm the growth of the country's digital economy, which relies
heavily on open internet access for freelancers, IT companies, and startups.
Previous crackdowns on VPNs have already been blamed for throttling internet
speeds and creating an unpredictable online environment for businesses. 

As this new licensing regime rolls out, the key question will be whether the
PTA will now more aggressively block access to international VPN providers
that refuse to apply for a local license. 

If that happens, millions of Pakistanis who rely on these tools for privacy,
security, and access to information will face a stark choice between using a
potentially compromised local service or being cut off from the global
internet. 

======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/pakistan-restarts-vpn-licen
sing-in-fresh-bid-to-control-online-space

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