Islamabad: Bankrupt Pakistan is facing a severe nationwide internet outage, which has affected businesses, financial services, and daily life.
As per the experts, it is one of the most serious technical disruptions in recent years. According to the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, an estimated two-thirds of the country’s internet users were impacted by this disruption.
To recall, on the same date in 2022, Pakistan also experienced a nationwide internet shutdown after major floods damaged fiber routes.
Expressing concern over the fragile state of the digital sector, Chairman of the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, Shahzad Arshad, said, “This is a national failure. Internet shutdowns are no longer a rare occurrence in Pakistan; instead, they are happening repeatedly. Even in 2025, two-thirds of the country’s internet collapsing on the same date as it did in 2022 is a warning bell for the government.”
Arshad warned, “Every hour of disruption causes Pakistan losses worth crores and damages our international credibility.” He said that the internet has now become as essential as electricity, since freelancers, hospitals, students, and banks all depend on it for their work. Arshad said, “Pakistan’s digital future can no longer remain hostage to a single point of failure. We don’t need repeated apologies, we need concrete reforms.”
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited Statement:
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, in a message after midnight, said that its services were facing disruptions and that teams were working to restore them soon. The company posted on X, “Dear customers, our PTCL and Ufone services are experiencing data connectivity issues. Our teams are actively working to restore services. We regret the inconvenience.”
Story Highlights
- The industry body has appealed to regulators to encourage more service providers, develop regional internet exchanges
- The body has suggested the providers to invest in backup systems to make the internet infrastructure diverse and resilient.
- Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited said that its services were facing disruptions and that teams were working to restore them soon
- In 2022, Pakistan experienced a nationwide internet shutdown after major floods damaged fiber routes.
Internet monitoring group NetBlocks confirmed on ‘X’ on August 19, saying, “Metrics show that Pakistan has experienced a major disruption in internet connectivity. The backbone operator PTCL has been the most affected, and national connectivity has dropped to only 20 percent of normal levels.”