Pakistan’s local mobile manufacturing and assembling plants produced 1.69 million handsets in January 2026, significantly higher than the 0.47 million units imported commercially during the same month, according to official data.
The January output included 0.92 million smartphones and 0.77 million 2G feature phones, reflecting continued dominance of smart devices in the domestic market. Data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) shows that 71 percent of mobile devices currently operating on Pakistani networks are smartphones, while 29 percent are 2G devices.
For the full calendar year 2025 (January–December), local plants assembled 30.21 million mobile handsets compared to just 2.37 million units imported commercially, underlining the growing reliance on domestic assembly under the government’s localization policy.
Despite strong local production, mobile phone imports have recorded notable growth in the current fiscal year. Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.139 billion during the first seven months (July–January) of fiscal year 2025-26, compared to $867.685 million in the same period last year, registering an increase of 31.36 percent.
In rupee terms, the total value of imports stood at Rs321.137 billion during July–January 2025-26, up 33.07 percent from Rs241.330 billion in the corresponding period of 2024-25.
On a month-on-month basis, mobile imports rose by 12.60 percent to $179.380 million in January 2026, compared to $159.304 million in December 2025. Year-on-year figures show a 33.62 percent increase from $134.243 million recorded in January 2025.
However, annual data for the previous fiscal year shows a contrasting trend. Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.494 billion during fiscal year 2024-25, marking a decline of 21.31 percent compared to $1.898 billion in 2023-24. In rupee terms, imports totaled Rs417.351 billion in FY2024-25, down 22.09 percent from Rs535.690 billion recorded in the previous fiscal year.
The latest figures indicate that while local manufacturing remains strong, import volumes are gradually rising again amid increasing consumer demand and higher smartphone penetration across the country.
