P@SHA Tells NCCIA to Stop Raiding Legitimate IT Firms, Demands Court Warrants and SOPs

By Fatima Raza | Published: 10 November 2026 | Updated: 10 November 2026 | Category: Technology

Pakistan’s IT industry body has asked the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) to stop raiding legitimate software houses, warning that the raids are damaging the country’s technology exports. The Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) says NCCIA teams have entered registered IT companies without showing court warrants, questioned staff for hours and seized laptops, servers and mobile phones — including at offices where investigators found nothing illegal. It wants every search of a registered IT firm to follow court warrants and agreed procedures, and has proposed a joint committee to handle complaints.

The warning matters because IT is one of the few parts of the economy growing fast. Pakistan’s IT exports reached a record $4.6 billion in FY2025-26, up from $3.8 billion a year earlier, and the government wants $10 billion by FY2028-29. P@SHA says overseas clients react quickly to news of a raid, and work can move to India, the Philippines or Eastern Europe if buyers lose confidence in the safety of Pakistani vendors.

Key Facts

What P@SHA Says Happened

According to P@SHA, member companies have complained that NCCIA teams arrived at their offices without showing warrants. Staff were questioned for long stretches, and teams left with laptops, servers and mobile phones. The association stresses that this happened at registered companies where, in its words, investigators found nothing illegal — and that the seizures disrupted work for firms whose clients are mostly overseas.

P@SHA does not oppose action against fraud. Its point is narrower: legitimate call centres and IT companies are fundamentally different from scam centres, and should not be treated as if they were the same thing. The association’s chairman, Dr Shoab Ahmed Khan, said the industry’s international business depends heavily on client trust, and that trust is damaged when an office is raided and equipment is taken away.

The concern is practical as well as principled. When a foreign client hears that its vendor’s office was raided, it does not wait for the full story — it starts looking for alternatives. Dr Khan warned that work could shift to India, the Philippines or Eastern Europe, which would cost Pakistan export earnings and jobs in its fastest-growing sector.

What P@SHA Is Asking For

The association has set out a clear list of measures. First, any search of a registered IT company should need a court warrant and follow agreed standard operating procedures. Second, employees should be treated respectfully during any visit, particularly women. Third, instead of seizing equipment, investigators should use on-site forensic imaging — copying the data they need while leaving the hardware in place so the business can keep running.

Beyond the immediate demands, P@SHA wants a permanent structure: a joint coordination and grievance committee bringing together the NCCIA, P@SHA, the Ministry of IT and Telecom and the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB). The committee would review complaints, exchange intelligence about fraudulent operators and develop agreed procedures for raids on registered businesses.

P@SHA has also requested an urgent joint meeting with the Minister for IT and Telecom, the Interior Ministry and the Director General of the NCCIA to settle the issue. The association says it will keep pushing until there is a written procedure that separates legitimate firms from scam operations.

Why This Hits Pakistan’s IT Exports

The timing is awkward for an industry the government is counting on. Pakistan’s IT exports hit $435 million in September 2026, the second-highest monthly figure ever, and the full-year total of $4.6 billion in FY2025-26 was a record. The sector has been growing at roughly 20 percent a year, and the government has set a $10 billion target for FY2028-29 under the Uraan Pakistan plan. P@SHA’s own Strategy 2031 aims higher still: $15 billion by FY2031.

Those targets depend on foreign buyers trusting Pakistani vendors with their data and their projects. A raid — even one that finds nothing — creates a record that a buyer in the US or Europe can find in a search. That is why P@SHA is treating this as an export issue, not just a law-enforcement complaint. The association also points to its recent push into new markets, including a 30-member delegation to Oslo Innovation Week in Norway, as evidence that the industry is trying to grow its footprint abroad at exactly the moment the raids are making headlines at home.

The NCCIA’s side of the story is that its crackdown is aimed at scam centres, and that some fraud operators do register as IT firms — which is why its teams have been entering offices. The agency had not replied to P@SHA’s statement at the time the reports were published. Until it does, the dispute is a statement and a set of demands on one side, and silence on the other — but the industry’s message is unambiguous: catch the scammers, but leave the legitimate firms alone.

What Happens Next

Three things will decide how this plays out. The first is whether the NCCIA responds to P@SHA’s statement and accepts the idea of warrants and agreed procedures for registered firms. The second is whether the requested joint meeting with the IT minister, the Interior Ministry and the NCCIA chief actually happens, and whether it produces a written procedure. The third is whether the proposed joint committee is set up — that would turn a one-off complaint into a standing channel for the two sides to talk before, rather than after, a raid.

There is a precedent for the industry pushing back: in 2021, P@SHA condemned FIA raids on IT companies in Karachi and asked for a transparent investigation. The difference now is scale — the industry is bigger, the export stakes are higher, and the crackdown on scam centres is wider. For software houses and call centres, the practical advice is unchanged: keep registration and compliance documents ready, know the procedure for a search, and report any raid without a warrant to P@SHA so it can be raised through the committee it is proposing. For the full picture on how regulators are handling new technology, see the PTA’s draft IoT licensing rules, and for how Pakistani tech is performing abroad, our report on the OnePlus 16 launch and its expected Pakistan price.

FAQs

P@SHA’s message to the NCCIA is simple: catch the scammers, but stop treating legitimate software houses like them. The industry body wants warrants, written procedures and a joint committee — and it is making the case in export terms, because $4.6 billion of annual IT earnings depends on foreign clients trusting Pakistani vendors. Whether the NCCIA accepts the proposal will be clear from its response and from the joint meeting P@SHA has requested. Until then, registered firms have a clear ask on the table, and a growing export record behind it.