Pakistan’s Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication delivered a blistering rebuke to PTA on April 30, 2026, over the widespread and ongoing mobile network outages that are estimated to be affecting approximately 60 million users across the country, with the session chaired by Senator Palwasha Khan descending into pointed exchanges over who bears responsibility for a crisis that is disrupting both daily life and business operations at a national scale.
PTA Chairman Major General (Retd.) Hafeez ur Rehman told the committee that the disruptions are being driven by a combination of surging diesel prices and rampant theft of fuel and batteries from the country’s 55,000 to 60,000 telecom towers, with Balochistan generating the highest volume of theft complaints. He acknowledged that between 30 and 40 percent of all towers, roughly 20,000 installations nationwide, are currently experiencing severe service disruptions or complete shutdowns directly linked to diesel shortages. The admission drew an immediate challenge from Senator Atta ur Rehman, who flatly rejected the theft narrative, arguing that the diesel is not being stolen from towers at all but is simply never arriving at them in the first place, suggesting a breakdown in the supply chain rather than theft at the point of delivery. Senator Afnan Ullah pressed PTA officials for concrete data on stolen fuel, only to be told the authority does not currently hold complete figures on the matter, a response that visibly frustrated the committee.
Senator Palwasha Khan directed some of her most pointed criticism at the condition of coverage in areas where users most need connectivity, describing a situation where mobile signals vanish precisely where they are needed and appear only where they are of no practical use to anyone. She highlighted her own repeated requests to PTA for towers to be installed in dead zones along the motorway, requests she said had been entirely ignored. Senator Sadia Abbasi added that powering towers is the sole responsibility of the mobile operators, and demanded that telecom companies be held directly accountable for delivering poor service while continuing to collect subscriber revenue. The IT Secretary offered partial defence of the sector by pointing out that Pakistan already operates with the lowest average revenue per user in the world and that telecom companies pay electricity at commercial rather than subsidised rates, limiting their financial headroom for infrastructure investment without new spectrum and revenue opportunities.
PTA announced as part of the session that installing solar panels on mobile towers is now legally mandatory, a measure intended to reduce dependence on diesel and provide towers with a more stable alternative power source during the protracted energy shortage. PTA is also negotiating directly with mobile operators on backup power solutions and indicated plans to embed stricter service quality conditions inside the upcoming 5G licence agreements. The committee resolved to form a dedicated sub-committee that will physically visit different regions of the country to verify on the ground the actual state of diesel supply, service quality, and tower operability, rather than relying solely on PTA’s own reporting. The session came a day after the same committee separately issued a one-month ultimatum to finalise the long-delayed Telecom Competition Rules, and heard from PTA on the broader social media compliance situation, making it one of the more consequential sets of parliamentary hearings for Pakistan’s telecom sector in recent months.
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