By Hamza Faisal

Pakistan's software industry body has warned that a cybercrime crackdown meant for scam call centres is sweeping up legitimate IT companies — and it says the raids are putting the country's fastest-growing export industry at risk.

The Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) said in a statement on Monday that National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) teams have raided legitimate software and IT-enabled services companies as part of the agency's ongoing crackdown on fraud operations. The association urged the agency to draw a clear line between real IT firms and scam centres, noting that it regards call centres as legitimate businesses and does not class scam operations as call centres at all.

Raids without warrants, servers seized

Member companies have complained that NCCIA teams entered offices without showing a warrant, held and questioned staff for hours, and took laptops, servers and phones into custody — even when nothing unlawful was found, according to P@SHA. The association said such actions halt client delivery, put confidential foreign client data at risk, and create fear among employees and investors.

The warning comes weeks after the NCCIA arrested 89 suspects in a nationwide sweep of illegal call centres in late October, a crackdown the industry body says it fully supports when it is lawful and evidence-based. P@SHA's complaint is not with the crackdown itself, but with how it is being carried out.

An industry built on trust

P@SHA chairman Dr Shoaib Ahmed Khan put the stakes bluntly: “Every single dollar is earned on trust. A foreign client who hears that his vendor's office was raided and its servers taken away does not wait for the forensic report.”

The numbers explain the anxiety. IT is the only industry in Pakistan growing consistently at around 20 per cent a year, according to P@SHA, and IT exports reached a record $4.6 billion in fiscal year 2026, up from $3.8 billion the year before. The government has set an ICT export target of $10 billion by fiscal year 2029 under its Uraan Pakistan plan — a goal the association says depends on the same ecosystem the raids are shaking.

Pakistan produces more than 70,000 computing graduates every year, Dr Khan noted, with families investing their savings in their children's education and universities building programmes around industry demand. The Ministry of IT and Telecom, the Pakistan Software Export Board, Ignite, the State Bank of Pakistan and the Higher Education Commission are all working towards the export targets, he said — and indiscriminate raids undo that collective effort and push skilled young people to leave the country.

What P@SHA wants changed

The association has asked the NCCIA to verify a company's status with the Pakistan Software Export Board and P@SHA through a designated focal person before any raid, and to stop subjecting IT companies to media trials. It also wants searches of registered IT firms to require a court warrant and follow agreed procedures, with on-site forensic imaging instead of equipment seizures, and a joint grievance committee to handle complaints.

Dr Khan acknowledged the NCCIA's position that some fraud operators register their businesses as IT companies. Enforcement must differentiate the two carefully, he said, instead of treating every office with laptops and a night shift as a suspect. The NCCIA had not responded to the association's statement at the time of reporting.