Guides
Where cameras can point: privacy rules in Pakistan
Pakistan has no dedicated CCTV statute, so the working rule is coverage of your own property: your gate, your frontage, your shop floor. Aiming a camera into a neighbour's window or courtyard invites complaint and weakens your position in any dispute. Housing societies and plaza managements add their own written conditions on top.
Last reviewed
The reasonable-expectation rule
With no specific law to cite, camera disputes here come down to reasonable expectation: nobody expects privacy on your shop floor or at your gate, and everybody expects it inside their own home and courtyard. A camera fixed on your wall watching your own frontage is uncontroversial. The same camera angled to take in a neighbour's door, window or lawn is where trouble starts — and where footage stops helping you.
Societies and plazas set their own conditions
In Bahria Town and DHA the society office usually has written conditions for cameras that overlook shared streets or sit on boundary walls, and approvals are easier before installation than after a complaint. In markaz plazas across the CDA sectors, external fixings, conduit through common stairwells and anything on the facade need the plaza management or landlord's consent. We ask for both in writing at survey stage.
Audio and workplaces raise the bar
Recorded conversation is treated far more seriously than recorded images, and sharing someone's audio or video without cause can itself create legal exposure. We switch microphones off on any camera that covers a shared corridor, a pavement or a counter unless there is a clear reason. Inside a workplace, staff should be told plainly which areas are covered — a sign at the entrance and a line in the staff briefing.
Is CCTV legal in Pakistan and where can I point my cameras?
Can my landlord stop me installing CCTV in a rented shop?
They can refuse drilling and external fixings, which most installs need, so ask before the survey. In our experience plaza landlords in Islamabad agree readily once cable routes and making-good are spelled out in writing.
Is footage from my camera usable as evidence?
Footage of your own premises with the correct date and time is routinely accepted by police and insurers. Footage taken by pointing into someone else's private space invites challenge — one more reason to keep the aim on your own boundary.
Rather have it done?
CCTV installation means a free survey of your shop, office or home, a camera plan that covers gates, counters and blind corners, cabling run through conduit, a recorder sized for the days of footage you want, and phone viewing working before handover. A four-camera 2MP package in Islamabad or Rawalpindi runs PKR 55,000 to 85,000 fitted.
CCTV installation in Islamabad — prices and scope