The Pakistan Mobile Phone Manufacturers Association has formally urged PTA to take decisive action against the open sale of stolen, smuggled, and cloned mobile phones in the country, warning that the unchecked proliferation of illegal devices is damaging investor confidence and threatening the continued growth of Pakistan’s local mobile manufacturing ecosystem. The association, which represents 33 manufacturers of both domestic and international mobile phone brands operating in Pakistan, addressed its concerns in a letter to PTA, describing a systematic malpractice in which International Mobile Equipment Identity numbers are being copied from genuine, legally imported devices and assigned to counterfeit, illegally imported, or stolen handsets to make them appear duty-paid and legitimate in the eyes of regulators and consumers alike.
The association noted that unauthorised imports have penetrated the local market without undergoing proper regulatory procedures or payment of applicable duties, creating an uneven playing field in which law-abiding manufacturers and importers bear the full cost of compliance while illegal operators undercut them on price with impunity. To address the cloning issue at its source, the Pakistan Mobile Phone Manufacturers Association called on PTA to implement a technologically advanced and effective International Mobile Equipment Identity tracking and verification system capable of detecting and flagging devices with duplicated or fraudulently assigned identification numbers. The scale of Pakistan’s legitimate mobile manufacturing base underscores why the association considers the current situation so consequential: up to March 2026, approximately 31.79 million devices had been sold in the market, of which more than 30.86 million were locally assembled, reflecting the industry’s substantial and expanding capacity for value addition within the country.
In a parallel letter addressed to the Ministry of Industries and Production, the Pakistan Mobile Phone Manufacturers Association raised a separate but related concern, cautioning against reports that commercial imports of used and refurbished mobile phones may be under consideration by the government. The association warned that permitting such imports at this stage of Pakistan’s industrial development would cause serious harm to the local assembly industry, discourage fresh industrial investment, reduce documented tax contributions to the national exchequer, and create significant enforcement, consumer protection, and national security risks.
The sector, the association pointed out, has generated over 40,000 direct employment opportunities and operates fully within the documented economy, contributing through sales tax, income tax, withholding tax, payroll-related taxes, utility payments, and formal employment obligations. The used phone trade, by contrast, has historically remained far less documented and does not contribute proportionately to national revenue. The association concluded that protecting sustainable industrial activity from the distortive effects of second-hand imports is not merely a commercial preference but a matter of sound economic policy, particularly at a moment when Pakistan’s local manufacturing base has demonstrated that it can meet domestic demand at scale.
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