Pakistan's smartphone shoppers are buying almost entirely home-assembled handsets. Local manufacturing and assembly of mobile phones met 97% of the country's demand in July 2026, up from 75% in May, according to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) data cited by Topline Securities. Domestic output rose by 9% year-on-year to 3.90m units, while imports shrank to a trickle of 0.11m.

The monthly swing was even more dramatic. Local assembly jumped by 102% from June, reflecting a rebound in consumer demand after buyers had held off on purchases ahead of the budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year. That pent-up appetite, released once the budget had passed, gave assemblers a busy month.

Imports moved sharply in the opposite direction. Shipments of foreign-made handsets fell by 35% year-on-year and by 83% month-on-month. At just 0.11m units, they accounted for only a sliver of the phones reaching Pakistani consumers in July.

Overall supply nonetheless expanded. Combining domestic production and imports, total availability reached 4.01m units in July, up 7% on a year earlier and 56% on June. Local assemblers, in other words, more than compensated for the slump in imported devices.

The longer view is less buoyant for domestic producers. In the first seven months of 2026, local manufacturing and assembly declined by 5% year-on-year to 17.00m units, compared with 17.83m in the same period of 2025. July's strong showing has yet to offset weakness earlier in the year.

Imports, by contrast, have grown substantially over the same stretch. Cumulative shipments from abroad reached 2.66m units in the seven months to July, a rise of 158% year-on-year. Total supply for the period stood at 19.66m units, up 4% on the previous year.

That leaves local assembly's share of the market at 86% for the year so far, well below July's peak of 97%. The gap suggests that imported handsets had been eating into domestic producers' share earlier in 2026, before the budget-related lull in buying.

Whether July marks a lasting shift or a one-off rebound remains to be seen. The month's figures were shaped by deferred demand, which may not recur. For now, though, the data show local assemblers firmly in command of Pakistan's mobile-phone market, with foreign imports reduced to a small fraction of supply.