Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.—John Adams

Pakistan's federal budget is usually a time for debating taxes, subsidies and fiscal priorities. This year, however, the budget process became the occasion for something far more disturbing: an attempt to deceptively push through legislation that would have substantially weakened the property rights of ordinary citizens in favour of powerful telecom operators.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was presented as a measure to accelerate fibre-optic expansion and facilitate the rollout of 5G services. Few would dispute the importance of modern telecommunications infrastructure. What raised alarm, however, was the extraordinary authority the proposed law sought to place in the hands of private telecom companies.

Under the proposed Sections 27-A and 27-B, licensed operators would have been empowered to seek access to private land, residential buildings, commercial properties (defined as public and private rights of way in the bill) for the installation of towers, cables and related infrastructure. More troubling was the concept of "implied consent". If a property owner failed to respond to two notices, consent would automatically be presumed. Citizens who resisted or delayed access could face penalties of up to fifty million rupees. Local zoning regulations and housing society rules could effectively be overridden. By contrast, in the........

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