Over 9,200 Diesel Thefts at Pakistan’s Telecom Towers in 11 Months, Senate Hears Alarming Data

Every time the power goes out in Pakistan, a quiet countdown begins. Telecom towers switch to backup batteries. Those batteries last a few hours. When they die, diesel generators are supposed to take over. But increasingly, the diesel is not there, and the reason is not just a shortage. In thousands of cases across the country, it is being stolen.

This pattern of Pakistan internet outages tied directly to telecom tower diesel shortages is now a formal parliamentary issue, and the figures placed before the Senate today are worse than most people realised.

The Session: What Was Discussed

The Sub-Committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunications convened today, June 1, 2026, under the chairmanship of Senator Sadia Abbasi. The agenda covered two interconnected crises: diesel theft from telecom towers and the broader collapse of internet quality driven by extended load shedding.

PTA’s Director appeared before the committee and delivered a briefing that laid out the scale of both problems in concrete terms.

9,200 Diesel Thefts in Eleven Months

The single most striking figure from today’s hearing: over 9,200 incidents of diesel theft from telecom towers have occurred in the past eleven months alone. That averages out to more than 800 incidents per month, roughly 27 every single day.

Senator Kamran Murtaza did not let that number pass without challenge. He asked the obvious question that the figure demands: how is diesel being stolen from towers that have watchmen stationed on site? The implication was clear: either the security arrangements are a formality or there is something more organised happening on the ground.

PTA officials acknowledged that installing security cameras and ensuring physical security at towers is the responsibility of the telecom companies themselves. But that answer raises a harder question: if operators are legally responsible for tower security, why are 9,200 thefts happening without systematic accountability?

The answer may lie in one additional disclosure from PTA officials: FIRs are not being registered for diesel theft incidents at telecom towers. Thousands of documented thefts, and the formal legal mechanism for pursuing them is largely not being used. No FIRs means no police investigation, no prosecution, and no deterrent.

USF Data: Balochistan Bears the Brunt

Officials from the Universal Service Fund added granular detail to the theft picture. Of more than 4,000 mobile towers under USF’s mandate, 330 have recorded theft incidents. Of those, 229 are located in Balochistan, meaning the province accounts for nearly 70 percent of reported tower theft cases within the USF network.

More concerning still: 90 telecom towers are experiencing repeat thefts. The same towers are being targeted again and again, pointing to organised activity rather than opportunistic crime.

Load Shedding: Twelve Hours Is Breaking the Sector

Beyond theft, the PTA Director gave lawmakers a clear assessment of what extended load shedding is doing to Pakistan’s telecom network. Operators are not defaulters, officials stressed; they are paying their bills. But they are facing up to twelve hours of load shedding daily, which their infrastructure simply cannot absorb.

Battery backup at telecom towers, PTA confirmed, cannot sustain operations beyond one to two hours. After that, diesel generators must run. With diesel being stolen, prices rising, and supply unreliable, operators are caught in a trap they cannot afford to sustain indefinitely. The PTA Director called for an uninterrupted electricity supply to be guaranteed for telecom operators, a recommendation the committee heard with clear urgency.

Senator Kamran Murtaza brought up a pointed example: even on Eid, when the government publicly announced a suspension of load shedding, both electricity and gas outages continued. If the government cannot honour a public holiday commitment on power, how reliable is any promise of priority supply to telecom infrastructure?

Mobile and Internet: Now an Essential Service

Senator Sadia Abbasi drew a firm line in today’s discussion. Mobile and internet services have reached the same level of necessity as electricity and gas in modern Pakistani life, she said. The committee can propose amendments to the Essential Services Act to formally include them, a significant legislative suggestion that would change the legal obligations of both government and operators.

She also delivered one of the sharper lines of the session: internet service is something even a thief wants. The remark, made in the context of widespread public frustration over connectivity quality, captured the absurdity of a situation where basic digital access has become unreliable for ordinary citizens across the country.

More than 55,000 cellular towers operate nationwide, with around 30 to 40 percent currently affected by diesel shortages, and nearly 20,000 towers have reportedly experienced partial or complete service outages due to fuel constraints.

Solar Transition and the Path Forward

PTA officials offered one constructive signal from today’s hearing: steps are being taken to transition telecom towers to solar power. Operators themselves are also moving in that direction. Solar would eliminate the diesel dependency that is currently the sector’s most exploited vulnerability, both by fuel thieves and by an unreliable supply chain.

On internet quality specifically, PTA told the committee that the recent spectrum auction will improve not just future 5G services but also existing 4G performance. The authority has also issued show-cause notices and imposed fines on operators for service quality failures.

Senator Abbasi was direct in her assessment: people are not satisfied with internet speeds, and improving mobile services is an urgent national priority.

The PTA has warned that current backup systems are becoming unsustainable, with rising petroleum prices making diesel generator operation prohibitively expensive for operators already under financial pressure.

The Bottom Line

Today’s Senate subcommittee hearing produced numbers that demand a response beyond recommendations. Over 9,200 diesel thefts. No FIRs. Twelve-hour outages. Ninety towers being robbed repeatedly. And a regulator asking for uninterrupted power while the government struggles to deliver it even on public holidays.

The solar transition offers a genuine long-term fix. But in the near term, Pakistan’s telecom tower network remains exposed to theft, to outages, and to a system of accountability that is not functioning. Until FIRs are filed, security is enforced, and power supply is prioritised, the internet disruptions millions of Pakistanis experience daily will continue, one stolen jerry can at a time.