- Pakistan has resumed VPN licensing under a new framework
- Five local companies are now authorized to offer “legal” VPN services.
- Users can use these licensed VPNs without registering their personal IP address with PTA.
The Pakistani government has taken another major step in its long and often controversial campaign to regulate the internet, officially introducing a licensing system for virtual private network (VPN) providers.
Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) advertisement On November 13, the company announced that five local companies had received the first licenses to offer so-called “secure and legal” VPN services to the public.
The move is the latest chapter in a multi-year effort by authorities to regulate the use of VPNs, tools that have become essential for many Pakistanis to circumvent widespread censorship.
Major social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), have been temporarily or permanently blocked for months, forcing citizens and businesses to turn to the best VPN services to freely access the global internet.
One of the immediate changes for users is that they can now use these specific licensed services without having to go through the laborious process of registering their individual IP addresses directly with the PTA.
A new scenario, old worries
While the government is presenting the move as a measure to improve cyber security and simplify regulations, the context of Pakistan’s digital landscape raises serious concerns among privacy advocates.
Previous attempts to ban “unregistered” VPNs failed due to legal challenges and public backlash, leading to this new, more structured approach to creating a pool of government-approved providers.
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The central issue remains the potential for surveillance. By requiring VPN providers to purchase local licenses, the government makes it easier for these companies to track user activity and release data.
This is in stark contrast to the policies of major international providers, many of which have strict VPN no-logging policies and have already purchased physical servers in countries with strict data retention laws, such as neighboring India.
Additionally, this move comes amid reports that Pakistan is working with China to develop a “Great Firewall”-style Internet censorship system.
A licensed and therefore auditable VPN system can be a crucial part of such an infrastructure, ensuring that even citizens trying to circumvent censorship are redirected to government-sanctioned channels.
What does this mean for Pakistanis?
Pakistani citizens now have a choice: use one of five new licensed local VPN providers or continue using unlicensed international services and risk possible disruption.
The PTA’s announcement hailed the new system as a way to promote “regulatory relaxation, ease of use and improved cyber security in Pakistan’s digital ecosystem.” For many, however, the biggest risk comes not from malware, but from the loss of anonymity and the government’s ability to monitor their online activities.
Digital rights experts have repeatedly warned that such regulatory efforts could seriously hurt 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 been blamed for throttling internet speeds and creating an unpredictable online environment for businesses.
With the introduction of this new licensing system, the key question will be whether the PTA will now more aggressively block access to international VPN providers who refuse to apply for a local license.
If this happens, the millions of Pakistanis who rely on these tools for their privacy, security and access to information will be faced with the difficult choice of using a potentially compromised local service or shutting down the global internet.