The National Assembly Standing Committee on IT and Telecom convened on July 14 for one of its sharpest exchanges yet on the state of Pakistan’s telecommunications sector, with committee members expressing sustained anger at mobile operators over deteriorating call quality and data services, PTA admitting service quality has not improved, the IT Minister attributing part of the problem to electricity load-shedding, and the committee directing that PTCL and Ufone officials be summoned to the next session to answer directly for substandard performance.
Committee member Mahesh Kumar opened by stating that after several years on the IT committee he was completely tired of discussing quality of service without seeing improvement, singling out Ufone’s service in Karachi as completely substandard. Sadiq Memon echoed the assessment, pointing out that mobile services have deteriorated badly even in major cities including Islamabad and Karachi, where call quality failures have become routine. One member raised concerns about the ongoing Telenor-Ufone merger, warning that the entity emerging from the consolidation could deliver even worse services to consumers than either operator does today. Committee Chairman Syed Amin-ul-Haque labelled Ufone’s performance as the worst of all operators and directed that PTCL and Ufone officials be called to the next committee meeting, while other members proposed summoning all three mobile operators simultaneously.
PTA Chairman Hafeez Ur Rehman explained that the regulator has shifted from conducting quality of service surveys jointly with operators to conducting independent district-level assessments, but did not dispute the committee’s core complaints. He explicitly acknowledged that PTA is not claiming service quality has improved, while arguing that quality will naturally get better as the 5G rollout progresses. The 5G defence, however, was undermined when PTA Director General Amir Shehzad confirmed the actual deployment numbers: only 449 5G sites are currently active across 22 cities in Pakistan, including just 50 in Karachi and three in Hyderabad. Against a national tower count of approximately 50,000, 449 sites represent less than one percent of the country’s mobile infrastructure. Memon noted that at the current pace of rollout, the 5G network will not reach full coverage until 2035, by which time the technology will already be outdated.
IT Minister Shaza Fatima defended the sector on multiple grounds, citing a surge in data usage that has strained networks designed for lower demand, noting that the entire telecom infrastructure relies on imported equipment which limits investment pace, and pointing to electricity load-shedding as a major factor behind poor service quality given how frequently network sites lose power. She highlighted that the government had expanded spectrum from 274 megahertz to approximately 750 megahertz through the recent auction, and argued that faster passage of the Telecom Amendment Bill will directly accelerate infrastructure deployment by resolving Right of Way barriers. She did acknowledge that Karachi’s 5G coverage requires more attention. The session’s combined disclosures, few active 5G sites, deteriorating 3G and 4G performance, and a regulator unable to claim improvement, present the most candid official picture yet of how far Pakistan’s telecom sector falls short of the connectivity standards that both citizens and the government’s own digital agenda require.
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