# PTA orders telcos to file FIRs fast as 9,200 tower thefts hit 16% of sites Source: Searchable (https://searchable.pk/news/technology/pta-orders-telcos-to-file-firs-fast-as-9200-tower-thefts-hit-16percent-of-sites) Type: News article Author: Searchable Editorial Published: 17 Sept 2026 Updated: 17 Sept 2026 Retrieved: 17 Sept 2026 > Diesel theft during load shedding is knocking mobile towers offline. PTA now wants every case reported and taken to the police, and followed up until it is closed. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has told every mobile operator to **report tower theft and vandalism promptly, get an FIR registered each time, and follow the case with police until it is closed**. The directive, reported on 16 September 2026, comes after more than **9,200 theft and vandalism incidents in 11 months** hit about **16% of the country's cellular sites**. If your signal drops or mobile data crawls for hours at a time, this is one of the reasons. ## What PTA ordered - Operators must report every theft or vandalism case at a site without delay. - An FIR must be registered for each incident, on time. - Operators must keep following up with the police until the case reaches a conclusion. PTA described the problem as having reached a critical level nationwide. The Ministry of IT and Telecommunication has brought in PTA and the Ministry of Law and Justice to work on better legal protection for tower sites. ## Why towers are being robbed Most of the theft is diesel. Pakistan has about 55,000 cellular towers, and when the grid goes down a tower runs on batteries for only one to two hours before it needs its generator, a PTA director told a Senate sub-committee on 1 June 2026. With long load shedding in many areas, generators run for hours, and their fuel tanks become a target. With diesel now at Rs 421.45 a litre ([see the diesel price page](/data/diesel-price)), each tank is worth more to a thief. At that hearing, officials said: - Theft averaged about 800 cases a month, roughly 27 a day. - 20,000 towers had faced partial or complete outages linked to fuel constraints. - FIRs were often not being registered for diesel theft, so most cases were never investigated. Today's directive targets exactly that gap. ## Where it is worst A PTA report to the Senate sub-committee in July named four high-risk districts: **Bannu (178 incidents), Lakki Marwat (100), Turbat (8) and Killa Abdullah (1)**. Of those 287 cases, only 98 were officially reported. Fuel theft (114 cases) was the most common, followed by power theft (56). Zong sites recorded 177 incidents and Jazz sites 110. ## What it means for you A tower without power switches off, and every phone on it falls back to a more distant site or loses service. That means dropped calls, slow 4G, and failed mobile banking and OTP messages, often in the smaller towns and rural areas that depend on one or two sites. A committee led by the IT secretary is also looking at dedicated feeders, smart grid and transformer fixes, and industrial electricity tariffs for tower sites, so that towers need less diesel in the first place. ## What you can do - **Report outages to your operator first**, with your exact location, so the site shows up in their fault data. - If the problem continues, lodge a complaint with PTA through its official website, [pta.gov.pk](https://www.pta.gov.pk). - Paying for a bigger bundle will not fix a dead site. Before you top up, check what you are paying in tax with our [mobile load tax calculator](/tools/telecom/mobile-load-tax-calculator). ## Frequently asked questions **Why is my mobile signal weak during load shedding?** Towers run on batteries for only one to two hours during a power cut, then need diesel generators. Diesel theft and fuel shortages mean many sites switch off, so your phone connects to a more distant tower or loses service. ## Sources - PTA Tells Telcos to Quickly Report Tower Theft Cases (16 September 2026) (ProPakistani): https://propakistani.pk/2026/09/16/pta-tells-telcos-to-quickly-report-tower-theft-cases/ - Over 9,200 diesel thefts at Pakistan's telecom towers in 11 months, Senate hears (1 June 2026) (PhoneWorld): https://www.phoneworld.com.pk/pakistan-telecom-tower-diesel-theft-9200-incidents-senate-pta-load-shedding/ - These four districts are Pakistan's biggest tower theft hotspots (14 July 2026) (ProPakistani): https://propakistani.pk/2026/07/14/these-four-districts-are-pakistans-biggest-tower-theft-hotspots/ How to cite: "PTA orders telcos to file FIRs fast as 9,200 tower thefts hit 16% of sites", Searchable, 17 Sept 2026, https://searchable.pk/news/technology/pta-orders-telcos-to-file-firs-fast-as-9200-tower-thefts-hit-16percent-of-sites