What Are the Rules for AI Outbound Calls in Pakistan?

Short answer: two bodies of rules matter. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) regulates spam and unsolicited communication, and section 25 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA) requires anyone doing direct marketing to give the recipient a way to unsubscribe. We could not find a published Pakistani rule on calling hours for a business making its own calls, or on AI-voiced calls, so treat those as unsettled. You are responsible for following the rules; ThinnestAI does not screen numbers against any register. This is not legal advice, and everything below was read from public sources on 25 October 2026.

Who regulates unsolicited calls and messages?

PTA made the Protection from Spam, Unsolicited, Fraudulent and Obnoxious Communication Regulations, 2009. Their text is organised in parts on spam, fraudulent communication, unsolicited calls and obnoxious communication, and they are addressed to telecom operators, who must set up complaint handling and a Do Not Call Register. Press reports say PTA told operators in 2021 to implement the register properly, which suggests it did not work as intended. We did not find a PTA page we could read directly, so we cannot quote the regulations' wording. Read the regulations themselves on the PTA website.

What does PECA section 25 say?

As quoted by a Pakistani digital-rights outlet, section 25 says a person, including an institution or organisation, engaged in direct marketing shall give the recipient the option to unsubscribe. In June 2022, PTA was reported as saying that sending marketing messages without consent breaks its rules and section 25, and that promotional SMS sent through telemarketers would go only to customers who had opted in and would carry an opt-out at the end. Both statements come from press reports of PTA announcements, not from the text of a notification we read.

What could we verify, and what could we not?

Can you record the call?

Be careful. Secondary summaries describe PECA section 19 (unauthorised interception) and treat Pakistan as an all-party-consent country for recording private conversations. A March 2026 Supreme Court judgment was reported as holding that secretly recording a private conversation is criminal, though the reports differ on how far it goes. We have not read the judgment, so we state no more than that. The practical answer is the same either way: say in your opening line that the call may be recorded, and keep recording off unless you need it. Recording is a per-agent switch, off by default.

What about data protection?

Pakistan has been considering a Personal Data Protection Bill for years. Guides we read in 2026 say it had not been enacted, and its status is unclear, so do not treat it as law and do not claim to meet it.

What should you do in practice?

1. Start with inbound. Answering your own incoming calls is a different matter from cold calling. See where to start: inbound or outbound.
2. Call people who expect you. Existing customers, people who asked for a callback or booked something, and people who gave you their number for that purpose.
3. Say who is calling and why in the opening line. You write it, so it can say that the caller is an AI. See whether you have to tell callers they are talking to AI.
4. Keep your own do-not-contact list and add anyone who asks to stop, straight away. The product gives you the list; you keep it.
5. Set calling hours per campaign on the called person's clock. The platform sets no window of its own, so choose hours that are reasonable and check with your adviser.
6. Keep proof of consent for WhatsApp marketing messages. See WhatsApp opt-in rules.

What should you do next?

Take the rules to a Pakistani lawyer before a marketing campaign, and read the official texts. For the product side, see the Pakistan page, voice campaigns and the guide to using an AI phone agent in Pakistan. The AI receptionist page covers the inbound side.