The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has whitelisted 20,437 Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), encompassing over 1,422 companies.
Among these, 19,840 VPNs are associated with 1,286 companies, while 180 VPNs have been registered by 136 freelancer companies.
Additionally, the PTA has registered 417 VPNs linked to the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA). This registration effort is part of a broader initiative by the PTA to regulate VPN usage nationwide.
The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016 mandates the PTA to block unlawful online content. However, despite efforts to block content at the gateway level, users can still access restricted material through VPNs, which encrypt traffic and route it through foreign servers, bypassing state-imposed restrictions.
The PTA has been registering VPNs since December 2010, following a directive issued under the Monitoring and Reconciliation of Telephonic Traffic (MRTT) Regulation 2010, clause 6.
Additionally, courts have directed the PTA to take necessary measures to effectively block unlawful content.
VPNs present challenges for the PTA in curbing unlawful content, but they are also essential for legitimate businesses such as software houses, call centers, and foreign missions, which rely on secure private network management. To balance these needs while preventing misuse, the PTA has issued public notices encouraging VPN registration.
The Ministry of Information Technology (IT) has announced that the PTA has transferred IP whitelisting controls to the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) to manage “One Window Operations” for call centers and freelancers. This move allows the PTA to facilitate VPN registration for companies and freelancers, working closely with stakeholders such as the Ministry of IT, PSEB, and P@SHA.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
