The federal government has decided to withdraw the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) (Amendment) Bill, 2026, after concluding that the proposed legislation had failed to resolve key Right of Way (RoW) challenges facing the telecom industry, reported Business Recorder.
Information Technology and Telecommunication Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja is expected to seek the Senate’s permission on Friday to withdraw the bill under Rule 115. The legislation was introduced in the upper house on June 15, 2026.
The proposed law was intended to overhaul the existing RoW framework under the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act, 1996. It divided properties into three broad categories—independent private property, common development property and public property—and proposed different procedures for telecom operators seeking access to each.
Under the proposed framework, telecom companies would have needed written consent from private property owners before establishing RoW. A formal agreement would also have been required, and operators would not have been able to proceed where an agreement could not be reached.
For common development areas such as roads, streets, parks and utility corridors within private developments, the bill proposed a time-bound approval process. Property managers would have 30 days to respond, after which the matter could be referred to the relevant government authority. The government would then have 45 days to make a decision after hearing the parties concerned.
A similar mechanism was proposed for public property. Telecom operators would first approach the relevant public authority, and if no response was received within 30 days, the matter could be escalated to the government for a decision within 45 days.
The proposed legislation also sought to reduce the financial burden associated with telecom infrastructure. Underground RoW on common development and public property was proposed to be free of charges, while certain temporary and specified telecom installations could also have been exempted from fees under federal government rules.
The bill further sought to prevent unreasonable obstruction after RoW had been lawfully granted. At the same time, telecom operators would have been responsible for repairing any damage caused during installation work and restoring affected areas.
The draft legislation also stipulated that telecom infrastructure could not be installed on permanent buildings without prior written permission from the building owner or an authorised representative.
To improve enforcement, the bill proposed penalties for deliberate obstruction of legally authorised telecom work. RoW disputes would have been handled by a designated district officer, with decisions required within 45 days. Parties would have been allowed to appeal those decisions before the relevant tribunal within 30 days.
However, following a review of the proposed amendments, the government determined that the bill in its existing form was not achieving the desired regulatory and policy objectives and decided to withdraw it.
The decision is important for Pakistan’s telecom sector because difficulties in obtaining RoW continue to slow the expansion of fibre networks, mobile infrastructure, small cells and other digital connectivity projects.
Telecom industry representatives have long called for a transparent and uniform RoW system that can reduce administrative delays, costs and disputes associated with infrastructure deployment.
The withdrawal of the bill could therefore lead to the government developing a revised legal and regulatory framework aimed at addressing RoW barriers and facilitating faster expansion of telecom infrastructure across the country.
