PTML challenges PTA order to suspend ONIC operations in court

Pakistan Telecom Mobile Limited (PTML) has taken its dispute with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to court, challenging an order that would stop commercial activity for its digital service ONIC. Profit, citing Business Recorder, reported the legal move. Last month the regulator instructed the company to freeze new sales, activations, SIM and eSIM issuance, subscriptions and marketing for ONIC.

The PTA concluded that ONIC's structure resembles a Mobile Virtual Network Operator under the 2025 framework, so it needs separate authorisation. Although ONIC draws on PTML's network, spectrum and numbering, it runs separate billing and customer management systems. DTMS, which handles marketing, customer acquisition and SIM logistics, receives 55% of the covered revenue for the first three years under the Build-Operate Services Agreement, with its share falling afterwards.

PTML must either reshape ONIC into a product sitting wholly inside its current licence or secure MVNO authorisation so the existing model can carry on. PTML has three months to transfer current ONIC customers across, and a compliance report is due within seven working days after the directive reaches it. The dispute dates to 2023, when PTML told the regulator it planned an app-based launch, and the Islamabad High Court sent the case back to the PTA in February 2026, asking for a decision with reasons.