Data-center law in Pakistan

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-06

The Special Technology Zones Authority Act 2021 establishes the Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA) and a licensing and incentive regime for zone developers and zone enterprises operating within designated Special Technology Zones, and the Authority's own function to identify and upgrade infrastructure within zones expressly includes data centres.

No separate environmental-review, energy-grid, water-utilities, construction, or air-operations statute specific to data centres was located; a data centre sited within an STZA zone is licensed and incentivised under this Act, and otherwise falls under Pakistan's generally applicable land use, environmental, and utility law, which was not independently researched in this visit.

Instruments on record

1 instrument on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.

Public agreements

What fiscal agreements attach a data center to its host jurisdiction?

Special Technology Zones Authority Act 2021, tax and customs incentives

In force

Special Technology Zones Authority Act 2021 (Act No. XVII of 2021), ss. 18, 20 and 21

Effective 2021-10-06 · Applies to both

The Special Technology Zones Authority Act, 2021 (Act No. XVII of 2021) received the President's assent on 4 October 2021 and was published in the official Gazette on 6 October 2021. The Act itself provides that it shall come into force at once. Among the Authority's functions is identifying, creating, and upgrading technological and scientific clusters and support systems within zones, including data centres, universities, and hospitals.

Section 20 gives zone developers, and section 21 gives zone enterprises, a ten-year package of incentives from the date of their development agreement or licence respectively: exemption from all taxes under the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 (including tax on profits and gains, turnover tax, withholding tax, and dividend-related taxes), exemption from sales tax under the Sales Tax Act 1990, exemption from customs duty under the Customs Act 1969 on imported capital goods not manufactured locally, exemption from property tax, and tax exemption on venture-capital dividend income and capital gains.

Section 18 lets the Authority recommend, and the Federal Government grant, further sector-specific incentives such as electricity, gas, or internet subsidies, subject to an economic impact assessment. Section 19 protects these incentives against premature or retrospective withdrawal.

Source: Full text of law