Microsoft is closing its local operations in Pakistan
Islamabad, Pakistan – After a quarter-century presence in Pakistan, Microsoft is officially closing its local operations. The Redmond-based tech giant confirmed the strategic shift, announcing that it will now serve its customers in the South Asian nation through a network of resellers and support from other closely located Microsoft offices.
A Microsoft spokesperson assured that “Our customer agreements and service will not be affected by this change.” This operational model, already successful in several other countries globally, aims to maintain the high level of service customers have come to expect. The decision is understood to impact five Microsoft employees within Pakistan, primarily those involved in selling Azure and Office products, as the company did not maintain engineering resources in the country, unlike burgeoning markets such as India.
This restructuring aligns with Microsoft’s broader global workforce optimization program, which recently saw the company reduce its workforce by approximately 9,000 roles worldwide. In preparation for this transition, Microsoft had already begun shifting licensing and commercial contract management for Pakistan to its European hub in Ireland over the past few years, with local certified partners handling day-to-day service delivery.
The Ministry of IT and Telecommunication in Pakistan acknowledged Microsoft’s exit as part of this wider corporate restructuring. The Ministry stated its commitment to “continue to engage Microsoft’s regional and global leadership to ensure that any structural changes strengthen, rather than diminish, Microsoft’s long-term commitment to Pakistani customers, developers and channel partners.” The news of the company’s departure was initially reported by former Microsoft executive Jawwad Rehman, who was the first lead for Microsoft in Pakistan, in a post on LinkedIn, lamenting it as a “sobering signal of the environment our country has created.”
Microsoft’s withdrawal comes at a peculiar time, just days after Pakistan’s federal government announced an ambitious plan to provide IT certifications, including those from Microsoft and Google, to half a million young people. This move stands in stark contrast to Google’s increasing engagement in Pakistan, which includes a $10.5 million investment in the country’s public education sector last year and considerations for producing half a million Chromebooks by 2026.
The exit further highlights the ongoing challenges within Pakistan’s tech sector. Unlike its regional counterparts like India, Pakistan has yet to firmly establish itself as a major engineering outsourcing destination for Western tech giants. The country’s technology ecosystem remains largely dominated by homegrown companies with their own engineering capabilities, and increasingly, by Chinese firms such as Huawei, which have secured significant market share by providing enterprise-grade infrastructure to local telecommunications companies and banks.
