The National Assembly Standing Committee on IT and Telecom met on July 14, 2026. During this session, Federal Minister Shaza Fatima briefed the committee with a startling claim. She stated that 97% of Pakistani citizens use broadband internet.
This statement is factually incorrect. The Ministry is clearly confusing cellular network coverage footprints with actual internet users. Let us review the hard facts.
We must look at independent digital insights to understand the true scale of Pakistan’s internet landscape. According to the Kepios Digital 2026 report, Pakistan’s actual internet penetration rate stands at just 45.6%. Consequently, out of a massive population, approximately 139 million Pakistanis remain completely offline.
One might assume the Minister accidentally quoted the country’s total teledensity instead of broadband penetration. Teledensity measures the total number of active SIM cards and landlines in the country. However, even this specific metric disproves her claim. As explicitly shown in official PTA data, Pakistan’s total teledensity for May 2026 peaked at just 82.85%.
Importantly, teledensity counts raw connections, not unique individuals. Millions of citizens operate dual SIMs or multiple devices. Therefore, the unique mobile user base is much lower than 82%. Moreover, a significant chunk of these active connections belongs to 2G feature phones. These older devices have absolutely no internet capability.
If the absolute total of all telecom connections in the country is 82.85%, claiming a 97% broadband adoption rate is a mathematical impossibility. Presenting inflated statistics to a parliamentary committee does not solve the ongoing telecom crisis. It merely proves that policymakers are severely disconnected from the ground realities.
