Lawmakers slam poor mobile service, urge govt to bring Apple to Pakistan

WEB DESK: Lawmakers on the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication on Monday criticised the country’s deteriorating mobile service quality, while urging the government to engage Apple and encourage the tech giant to establish a presence in Pakistan.

The committee, chaired by Syed Aminul Haque, reviewed the state of the telecom sector, including mobile service quality, the rollout of 5G, smartphone taxation and local mobile phone manufacturing.

Members expressed frustration over the continued decline in mobile network performance, saying consumers were still facing poor connectivity despite years of discussions on the issue.

Committee member Mahesh Kumar said he had served on the IT committee for several years and was now “tired” of repeatedly discussing the quality of telecom services without seeing any meaningful improvement.

Echoing the concerns, Sadiq Memon said mobile services had become increasingly unreliable in recent days, adding that users in major cities, including Islamabad and Karachi, were also experiencing poor call quality.

In reply, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman Major General (Rtrd) Hafeez Ur Rehman said that the regulator previously conducted quality-of-service surveys jointly with telecom operators but now carries out independent district-level assessments.

He acknowledged that the PTA was not claiming service quality had improved, but said the nationwide rollout of 5G was expected to gradually enhance network performance.

IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja told the committee that mobile data usage had grown significantly over the past several years, making network upgrades increasingly important.

The minister said the country had completed the 5G spectrum auction and was now entering the rollout phase, while noting that Pakistan still relies heavily on imported telecom infrastructure.

The committee also took up the issue of smartphone taxation, with the PTA chairman describing the nearly 60 per cent tax burden on mobile phones as excessive.

He said the PTA regularly recommends tax reductions through the Ministry of IT, clarifying that the authority neither imposes smartphone taxes nor determines tax rates for individual devices. Its role, he said, is limited to whitelisting mobile phones.

Calling smartphones a necessity rather than a luxury, Aminul Haque said the government should review the existing tax regime to make digital access more affordable.

The discussion also turned to local manufacturing, with the PTA chairman informing lawmakers that 37 companies have been licensed to manufacture mobile phones in Pakistan, reducing imports to just 8 per cent of the domestic market.

Shaza Fatima said premium smartphones, including Apple iPhones and Google Pixel devices, continue to be imported and are therefore subject to import duties.

Questioning Apple’s absence from Pakistan, Aminul Haque said companies such as Nokia and Samsung had already established operations in the country and asked why Apple could not do the same.

He urged the Ministry of IT to engage with Apple, saying the company had expanded into neighbouring markets such as India and Bangladesh and should also be encouraged to invest in Pakistan.