Telecommunication Bill faced fresh opposition on Monday after Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Vice President Senator Sherry Rehman said the party would not support the proposed legislation in the Senate unless it underwent detailed review and its recommended changes were included in the final draft.
Concerns over the Pakistan Telecommunication (Amendment) Bill 2026 have intensified following criticism of provisions linked to fibre infrastructure expansion and clauses relating to telecom operators’ use of public land.
The bill was approved by the National Assembly on June 11 before being introduced in the Senate on June 15. It was later referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication, where deliberations were deferred.
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Separately, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formed a committee to review the proposed law and submit recommendations.
In a statement shared on social media, Senator Sherry Rehman said the PPP would not support any IT, PTA or right-of-way legislation unless it was examined thoroughly in the Senate standing committee and the party’s proposed deletions were reflected in the final version.
She stated that the bill passed by the National Assembly was halted in the Senate because it still included provisions the party had repeatedly requested to remove, particularly Clause 27-A.
According to Rehman, party members in the National Assembly had been informed that the disputed provisions would be removed before the bill moved forward.
She argued that although some amendments had been made, several concerns remained unresolved when the legislation reached the upper house.
The senator stressed that the PPP supports fibre expansion across Pakistan but opposed provisions that, in its view, created concerns over right-of-way, excessive penalties and redressal mechanisms being concentrated under executive authority.
She welcomed the government’s decision to establish a review committee but said any revised proposals should return to the Senate standing committee for discussion.
Rehman also suggested holding public hearings to improve transparency and strengthen public confidence in the legislative process.
She reaffirmed that the party’s position remained unchanged regarding private property protections and right-of-way concerns.
The proposed legislation has also attracted scrutiny from members of both the PPP and PML-N, who questioned why provisions relating to telecom towers and associated infrastructure had been included in a bill focused on fibre deployment.
Pakistan’s telecom sector has increasingly moved toward infrastructure-sharing models following the implementation of the Passive Telecom Infrastructure Policy.
Industry data indicates that approximately 50,000 telecom towers operate across the country, with ownership increasingly shifting to independent infrastructure companies.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of IT and Telecom previously clarified that the bill does not authorise telecom operators to enter private property without consent or allow compulsory acquisition of private land.
