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The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has registered 20,437 Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) as part of its whitelisting initiative, which includes 1,422 companies.
The Ministry of Information Technology (IT) announced that the PTA has transferred control of IP whitelisting to the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) to manage “One Window Operations” for call centers and freelancers.
According to official documents, 19,840 VPNs have been registered in Pakistan by 1,286 VPN providers. Moreover, freelancers have begun registering their VPNs, with 136 freelancers registering 180 VPNs so far while 417 VPNs have been registered through the Pakistan Software Houses Association.
Under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016, the PTA is mandated to block illegal online content. However, despite measures to block content at the gateway level, users can still access banned material through VPNs, which encrypt traffic and reroute it through foreign servers, bypassing state-imposed restrictions.
Media reports indicate that the PECA Act’s enforcement against unlawful VPN use will not intensify until VPN usage for illegal activities decreases.
