Critical Legal Analysis of Pakistan’s AI Regulatory Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_56How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence; Regulation; Data Protection; Pakistan; Governance

Abstract

This paper aims to critically evaluate Pakistan’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulatory frameworks in terms of the general challenges faced by a developing country at the institutional level. Aside from challenges, Pakistan offers considerable room for growth and development in the technology sector. As a populous developing country, Pakistan generates vast volumes of data through its ever-expanding digital ecosystem, including mobile usage, e-governance platforms, biometric databases, and social media, which represent a potentially lucrative commodity for AI developers. However, the absence of a holistic AI governance framework raises serious concerns about misuse, privacy breaches, and exploitation. The paper employs doctrinal and comparative legal methodologies to assess the adequacy of current and future Pakistani laws, including the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2024 and the Digital Nation Pakistan Act 2025, in addressing emerging AI-related issues. The paper reveals that such instruments are either overextended, obsolete, inefficient, or lack appropriate mechanisms to regulate AI-specific risks such as bias, AI liability, and autonomous decision-making. For context, the paper draws insights from the European Union’s self-regulatory regime, China’s state-dependent regulatory model, and the United States’ fragmented approach. These comparisons emphasise the need for Pakistan to move above and beyond its typical reactive, policy-only measures toward a binding legal framework that integrates human rights and ethics without compromising innovation and development. This paper finds that Pakistan’s fragmented AI governance leads to friction between institutions, corroding coordination. Nonetheless, the paper advocates for a multi-stakeholder approach involving legal experts, legal academics, technologists, civil society, and the industry to create comprehensive legislation. In its conclusion, the paper highlights the urgent need for Pakistan to transition from soft law to binding, enforceable legislation that aligns with global best practices, draws inspiration from Islamic Law Principles, whilst addressing local socio-political realities.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Muhammad Hassan
AU  - Mohamad Fateh Labanieh
AU  - Mohammad Hariz Shah Mohammad Hazim Shah
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/07
TI  - Critical Legal Analysis of Pakistan’s AI Regulatory Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities
BT  - Proceedings of the UUM 13th International Legal Conference 2025 (UUMILC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 798
EP  - 809
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_56
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_56
ID  - Hassan2026
ER  -