Pakistan's VPN regulation plan faces major tech hurdles

Pakistan's government is accelerating its efforts to regulate and whitelist virtual private networks (VPNs), a process that began in 2010 but has gained renewed focus under the current Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led coalition government.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) claims that unregulated VPNs, particularly free services, pose risks to national security and can enable illegal activities that may harm the country's information technology (IT) sector.

To implement this regulation, the PTA has launched a new portal for VPN registration and whitelisting, taking over the process previously handled by the Pakistan Software Export Board.

The portal requires both individual users and IT companies to undergo a stringent registration process. Companies must provide details about their focal person and active taxpayer status, while individual users must submit comprehensive information including their service provider details, IP address, mobile number, and both home and office addresses.

Opposition and concerns

The government's VPN regulation efforts have faced significant pushback from multiple sectors. The IT industry and freelance community, represented by organizations like the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) and Freelancers Association of Pakistan, have raised concerns about the impact on their operations.

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The government's VPN regulation efforts have faced significant pushback from multiple sectors, particularly due to VPNs' essential role in modern business operations since the early 2000s.

For many workers, VPNs aren't just tools for privacy – they're fundamental to accessing their workplace systems. Whether connecting to foreign companies' servers or accessing local corporate networks, employees often must use VPNs to meet strict security protocols.

Major organizations in Pakistan, from multinational corporations like Unilever to domestic banks, and even government institutions like NADRA and police departments, require their employees to connect through specific IP addresses via VPNs before accessing their internal servers.

This security practice is standard across industries: companies maintain private servers that can only be accessed through designated IP addresses, creating virtual private networks that shield sensitive operations from public view.

For remote workers and businesses handling international shipping, VPNs are particularly crucial as they need to access region-restricted websites and services.

The IT industry and freelance community, represented by organizations like P@SHA and Freelancers Association of Pakistan, have therefore raised serious concerns about how VPN restrictions would disrupt these essential business processes.

The regulation push has also sparked public resistance in response to government censorship. This was evident in February 2024 when the federal government's ban on X led to a surge in VPN usage among mobile internet users, with free VPN adoption increasing dramatically.

The impact of such restrictions was briefly demonstrated on November 10, when most mobile broadband and free-to-use VPNs in Pakistan were temporarily shut down for several hours before being restored after the intervention of IT industry representatives.

Technical and practical challenges

The implementation of VPN regulation in Pakistan faces several significant technical hurdles, with the static IP requirement being a primary concern.

The government's plan mandates users to operate through static IPs for VPN whitelisting, but according to Shahzad Arshad, chairman of the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (WASP), static IPs are only possible through landline connections.

This creates a fundamental problem for mobile users, who make up the majority of internet users in Pakistan, as they typically operate on dynamic IPs that change as they move between cellular towers.

The financial implications of these technical requirements present another major obstacle. While P@SHA Chairman Sajjad Mustafa Syed acknowledges that VPN whitelisting itself is free, the technical infrastructure needed creates significant additional costs.

Users must invest in setting up their own servers and systems to use static IPs, and server accreditation is required regardless of whether the server is local or international. These requirements impose a substantial financial burden on users and businesses alike.

The scale of implementation presents not just a logistical challenge, but a fundamental flaw in the regulation's approach. With over 139 million mobile broadband users, compared to just 3 million fixed telephone line subscribers, the government's plan effectively excludes the vast majority of internet users from any legal path to VPN usage.

This imbalance is likely to drive users toward unauthorized solutions and alternative circumvention tools. History suggests that when such a large portion of the population is denied legitimate access to digital tools they consider essential – whether for business, communication, or accessing information – they will inevitably find or create workarounds.

Two systems?

While the government aims to control VPN usage through technical means, the proposed solutions appear to be at odds with the country's digital infrastructure and the needs of its internet users.

The static IP requirement particularly threatens to create a two-tiered internet access system: one for the small minority with fixed-line connections who can afford the additional infrastructure costs, and another for the vast majority of mobile users who would be effectively cut off from VPN services.

As Pakistan's digital economy continues to grow and its IT sector expands internationally, finding a workable solution that addresses both security concerns and practical needs is increasingly crucial.