Microsoft Exits Pakistan After 25 Years
Microsoft has officially exited Pakistan after 25 years, shifting operations to regional resellers.
The move follows global job cuts and raises concerns about Pakistan’s tech investment climate.
Global tech giant Microsoft has officially ended its direct operations in Pakistan, marking the conclusion of a 25-year presence in the South Asian country. The decision, confirmed on Friday, is part of a broader corporate restructuring and workforce optimization strategy.
The Redmond-based company has decided to stop direct operations in Pakistan and will now cater to its Pakistani customers through certified resellers and regional offices in neighboring countries.
“Our customer agreements and service will not be affected by this change,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. “We follow this model successfully in a number of other countries around the world. Our customers remain our top priority.”
Sources familiar with the matter have disclosed that only five local employees will be affected by the closure. Microsoft’s operations in Pakistan primarily revolved around the sales and marketing of cloud services, including Azure, as well as software solutions such as Microsoft 365. Unlike in India and other major growth markets, the company did not maintain an engineering or development hub in Pakistan.
Over the past few years, Microsoft has shifted contract and licensing management for Pakistani clients to its European headquarters in Ireland, while certified local partners handled customer engagement and service delivery.
The company’s decision is part of a global workforce reduction that saw Microsoft cut 9,000 jobs, or 4% of its global workforce, earlier this week. Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting described the withdrawal as a “wider workforce-optimization program” rather than an isolated market pullout.
In response to the development, the ministry stated that it will continue to engage with Microsoft’s global and regional leadership to safeguard the interests of Pakistani developers, customers, and channel partners.
Former Microsoft executive and the company’s first country lead in Pakistan, Jawwad Rehman, expressed disappointment over the exit in a LinkedIn post, calling it “more than a corporate decision.”
“It’s a sobering signal of the environment our country has created, one where even global giants like Microsoft find it unsustainable to stay,” Rehman wrote.
He also questioned the failure to build on the foundation Microsoft had laid in the early years of its presence in Pakistan.
Microsoft’s departure stands in sharp contrast to Google’s growing interest in Pakistan. Last year, Google announced a $10.5 million investment in the country’s public education system and is now considering Pakistan as a Chromebook production hub, with plans to produce 500,000 units by 2026.
Additionally, Pakistan’s federal government had recently announced plans to provide IT certifications from major tech firms, including Microsoft and Google, to 500,000 youths, further highlighting the awkward timing of Microsoft’s market exit.
Pakistan has struggled to position itself as a viable engineering or outsourcing hub for global technology companies. While India and others have successfully attracted significant R&D investments, Pakistan’s tech ecosystem remains relatively underdeveloped, often dominated by local software firms and Chinese companies, such as Huawei, which have capitalized on the enterprise IT and telecommunications sectors.
With Microsoft’s exit, analysts say Pakistan must urgently address the structural and policy issues that discourage long-term foreign investment in its digital economy.