As you might have guessed, Pakistan has some of the most restrictive Internet laws in the world and the Internet is anything but free and open. There are two main organizations that facilitate Internet restrictions in Pakistan – namely the PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) and the PIE (Pakistan Internet Exchange). These two groups exercise the most influence over the Internet regulations, but the general public doesn’t have a full understanding of how advanced their power and techniques have become at monitoring data communications.
In addition, their Internet is extremely controlled with censorship. Pakistan is probably the last place in the world you would want to be caught making offensive remarks, and the results of your comments and messages could mean heavy consequences. Their laws are very clear about their lack of tolerance for offensive messages and blasphemy. Because of these laws, they have censored a great number of websites, both big and small, residing in foreign countries. From blog content to websites as massive as YouTube, the powers that be take a lot of time and resources to nip any offensive political statements that could result in protests or the formation of new organizations in the bud.
But things get even worse for Internet users in Pakistan. The political and religious climate is always changing, and the area has been experience dynamic change for years. As such, it is nigh on impossible to constantly track the services that do and do not work on a daily basis. However, having said that, you simply cannot do without a VPN to safeguard your data from various groups and agencies. In these types of Internet climates, it is best to opt for a VPN service provider additional or in conjuction with Tor, for optimal protection. Keep in mind that Tor slows down the connection quite a bit more, so using them together is good, but not fast.
And above all, you should note that the PTA has coerced various networks and ISPs into preventing people from using VPN connections. The idea is to stop people from securing their data so that the government can keep a tight grip around and watchful eye over all data communications. There are ways to hide the fact that you are using a VPN to secure your data, and this has been factored into our selection of the best VPNs for Pakistan. But remember that you are certainly going to need to test out a service first, so I would recommend that you opt for services that offer a free trial or a decent money back guarantee. Things simply change too quickly in Pakistan to always know what is coming next regarding Internet restrictions.
Best VPNs for Pakistan
ExpressVPN – Complete Review
ExpressVPN frequently appears near the top of the list and they are also a top pick for Pakistan. While it is true that they are more expensive than many other providers ($8.32 per month), they have an extremely high quality of service and they have a 30-day money back guarantee. This will give you an entire month to test out their services, and they also have servers in over 78 countries.
PIA VPN – Complete Review
Private Internet Access needs to be mentioned on this list for several reasons. They don’t provide a free trial, but they do offer a 7-day money back guarantee to see how well their service works in Pakistan. In addition, they have more VPN servers than most other providers. To date their network is comprised of about 4,000 servers in 24 countries, and they are the cheapest VPN provider on the list. At just $3.33 per month with a 1-year subscription, it would be challenging to find a cheaper provider that still offers a high quality of service.
TorGuard VPN – Complete Review
TorGuard ranks third on our list of VPN services for Pakistan, and they have 1200 servers in over 42 countries. They have built a reputation of providing a fast a reliable service, but their price is a lot more attractive than the price of ExpressVPN. TorGuard VPN only costs $5.00 per month, and it is well worth it to avoid the eaves dropping Pakistani government. In addition, they will never impose data limits on your VPN tunnel or throttle your connection.
PureVPN – Complete Review
PureVPN is our fourth, but still excellent choice for Pakistan for serveral reasons. First of all, they offer a 7-day money back guarantee in case something changes on the Internet in Pakistan, but unfortunately this is limited to 500Mb, so you really can barely test a server or two. But, they are priced cheaper than most other providers at only $4.16 per month. Plus, they have more countries to connect to than most other providers, so you can rest assured that you will have plenty of connection options near your location in Pakistan.
VyprVPN – Complete Review
VyprVPN also had to make the list because of one oddity with their service. Believe it or not, you can actually use their VPN service absolutely free. This gives you a lot of flexibility to test it out in Pakistan, but there is a catch. Their free service has data limits on it, so it’s really just a way to test their service. However, they do have over 700 servers in over 50 countries and they are very reasonably priced at $6.25 per month – making them our last top pick for Pakistan.