Information Technology Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja has made the most detailed public defence to date of the proposed Pakistan Telecommunication Re-organisation Amendment Bill 2026, arguing at a joint press conference with Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar in Islamabad that the existing telecommunications legislation, enacted in 1996 when 2G technology was in use, is fundamentally inadequate for the demands of 5G, fibre broadband expansion, and next-generation digital connectivity.
The minister cited the pace of change in Pakistan’s telecommunications landscape to underscore the urgency of the proposed amendments, noting that data consumption has grown by nearly 25 percent over the past two years driven by population growth and digital adoption, while spectrum availability has increased from 274 megahertz to approximately 750 megahertz following the country’s largest-ever spectrum auction. She said that when the current government took office in 2024, only 3 million households in Pakistan had fibre-based internet connections, and that two years of policy and technical interventions have raised that number to more than 5 million. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has set a target of extending wired broadband to at least 10 million households over the next three years, a target the minister said the existing regulatory framework cannot support due to long-standing right-of-way barriers that have constrained the infrastructure investment needed to achieve it.
Khawaja reiterated that the bill does not allow anyone to occupy private land without consent, and Law Minister Tarar confirmed that the consent of property owners will remain mandatory before fibre-optic cables can be laid through private land, and that any citizen who does not wish to allow telecom infrastructure on their property has the full legal right to refuse. Tarar also said the parliamentary committee found no evidence that the legislation was intended to favour any individual, noting the National Assembly had already passed the bill with six amendments. He added that the legislation primarily addresses challenges involving housing societies that have entered into agreements but later created obstacles to telecom infrastructure deployment, rather than targeting ordinary private homeowners.
In a notable development at the same press conference, the IT Minister addressed allegations concerning her and the IT Secretary’s financial integrity that she said had been made under the pretext of opposition to the bill. Khawaja said she has formally requested Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to order an inquiry into the matter, stating she would accept full responsibility if wrongdoing is established but warning that if the allegations are found to be baseless, both she and the IT Secretary reserve the right to pursue legal action under the Constitution and relevant laws. The minister’s decision to raise the issue publicly adds a new dimension to what has been primarily a legislative and property rights controversy, signalling that the government intends to address the political aspects of the bill’s opposition alongside its substantive review by the Prime Minister’s committee.
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