Historically, the telecom sector in Pakistan has faced strong headwinds due to spectrum scarcity, right-of-way-related (RoW) challenges, excessive and unwarranted taxation on telecom services, unfair denial of industrial electricity tariff to telecom operators, etc. At the same time, information and communication technology (ICT) has risen to unpresented economic importance globally. Therefore, and not surprisingly, Pakistan’s economic progress is crucially tied to increase in IT exports, genesis of a thriving digital and e-Commerce ecosystems; these avenues present the greatest opportunity for the Country to economically frog leap. The current government, acknowledging that the telecom sector serves as a foundation layer for all the other sectors to grow, including IT and the digital ecosystem, has taken important measures to uplift the telecom sector – case in point, the recent 5G auction and efforts to eradicate ROW-related challenges.
To radically revamp and simplify the RoW paradigm, the government has introduced the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-Organization) (Amendment) Bill, 2026. Unfortunately, the current ongoing deliberations on this Bill in the Senate has unnecessarily spiraled into a confrontation between digital infrastructure ambitions and constitutional property rights. While concerns raised by the Senate Standing Committee regarding private-property protections, compensation mechanisms, and the proposed PKR 50 million penalty deserve serious deliberation, it is important for the legislators not to lose sight of the underlying policy objective of the reform itself.
The Government’s objective is neither novel nor unreasonable. Pakistan remains a mobile-first digital economy where nearly 90% of internet usage is carried over cellular networks. Although industry fiber to the site (FTTS) penetration has improved from approximately 14% to 19% in recent years, the country remains significantly under-fiberized relative to the demands of future broadband growth and 5G deployment. Delays in obtaining right-of-way permissions, inconsistent municipal practices, and prolonged approval processes continue to impede fiber rollout and increase infrastructure costs. These are genuine barriers in the growth of the telecom sector that require urgent policy intervention.
The answer is not to abandon RoW reform but rather to fast track it. When it comes to RoW, governments worldwide have introduced time-bound approvals, deemed approvals, and standardized access frameworks to prevent critical infrastructure projects from being indefinitely delayed. Such mechanisms exist across Europe, the United Kingdom, India, and the United States. Properly designed, they are regulatory tools to address administrative inefficiency—not blanket rights to occupy private property without consent. Parliament should therefore strengthen the Bill’s safeguards relating to owner consent, compensation, notice requirements, appeals, and due process, while preserving the objective of accelerating digital infrastructure deployment.
The real policy challenge is not whether Pakistan needs RoW reform—it clearly does. The challenge is whether the final framework can simultaneously support fiberization and respect constitutional protections. The Senate’s scrutiny should be viewed as an opportunity to refine the legislation, not derail it. Pakistan’s digital future requires more fiber, but it also requires public trust. A successful RoW framework must deliver both. Therefore, the hope remains that our legislators in the Upper House will make a prudent decision regarding the RoW Bill so that it can be passed to fuel the growth of the telecom sector and position Pakistan to capitalize on both domestic and global ICT-related opportunities.
