Pakistan has Highest Rate of Windows OS Piracy: GM Microsoft Pakistan

The Country Manager of Microsoft Pakistan, Nadeem Malik, stated on Monday that Pakistan is among the countries where piracy rate of Windows OS is highest.

The under consideration “cyber law” is crucial to implement idea protection, ensure and respect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and control the piracy trend, said Malik while addressing a briefing organized by Microsoft Pakistan with the theme “#UpgradeYourWorld campaign”.

The event was part of the campaign where benefits of optimum utilization of Windows 10, which has been globally launched recently, were shared.

The government needs to provide a conducive business environment in respect to taxation and policies, said Malik, adding that contrary to India, Information Technology industry boundaries are yet to be defined in Pakistan. He also announced windows prices in Pakistan have been decreased for the licensed customers to overcome the menace of piracy and make it affordable for talented people. He says that several projects of Microsoft to increase the CSR coverage and reach out the talent are under consideration with the government.

He further says that Pakistan has great potential, talent and absorption capacity. Every dollar spent on Microsoft products purchasing, bring $8 in the country economy.

The #UpgradeYourWorld campaign was launched in Pakistan in alliance with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to highlight the benefits of utilizing the latest Microsoft ‘Windows 10’.

The campaign started from the city of Bahawalpur on the 10th of November, 2015. This campaign later proceeded northwards, through various rural and urban areas of Pakistan, visiting prominent academic institutions in numerous cities and towns. The initiative concluded in Islamabad on the 20th of November, 2015.

Jebran of Microsoft Pakistan said that Microsoft is one of the pioneering multi-national IT enterprises, which has launched this campaign to enhance technology awareness in the rural areas of Pakistan, where professional exposure and learning experiences are being delivered.

On the global scale, the ‘UpgradeYourWorld’ campaign is being conducted throughout various significant cities such as; Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing, New Delhi, Dubai, Nairobi, Berlin, Johannesburg, Madrid, London, Sao Paolo, and New York.


  • Yeah… price your products according to the per capita income of PK (along with incentives) and see that figure go down. Without that, keep QQ’ing.

    • Even if they did that, we will still pirate it because if given a choice between the two, we will always choose the easier way out.

      • I didn’t say everyone would go legit but the number will go down but yeah I sort of get what you’re saying but I can only speak for myself e.g I purchase almost all my games now cause I can get em for cheap from sites like cjs-cdkeys/g2a etc

        • If we continue to pirate games and operating systems then companies will have no choice but to charge higher for such products.

          • Wrong approach. Look at DOTA2, its a F2P model but the people here buy a lot of in-game items because its in their ‘range’. I’ve personally bought hundreds of in-game items for friends from steam store/market.

            Pricing needs to be as per the market, India got its own Origin store and the prices are more than reasonable. If we get something similar, you would see more people buying. CS:GO is already very popular because a teen can afford it, its selling for Rs.700-800 I believe.

      • No brother. Not most, but many people use pirated windows because of unavailability of original software in market in an affordable price. Who will pay 10k for OS if their computer cost 7k.? I think if price is reduced and original OS is made available in local Market then there are chances that many of us will prefer original windows.

    • Not really. The price of a product is what people are willing to pay for it. If you can’t afford it, you don’t get it. Simple as that. If Pakistanis can pay two to three times the price of a competing brand phone just to get their hands on the latest iPhone, they sure can pay for a licensed copy of Windows as well.

      • Going by that logic, EA shouldn’t have launched origin in India? valve shouldn’t have launched and locked their store by regions? RU region games are half the price of the games of US/UK region. MGS V: TPP was for 1.2k in India I kid you not.

        Are you saying 60k/70k priced mobile phones are the representative of everyone in Pakistan? Please don’t generalize and put everyone in that category.

  • If original software is beteen Rs. 5000-10,000. I assure I will buy it but no one can buy a Rs.40,000 OS.

  • You know what stop counseling us about piracy when you aren’t even investing a dime in our software industry.

  • Good to know the Construction Industry of OS by Nadim Malak Sb., Pakistan’s Country Manager of Microsoft Windows 10 OS. I think ABAD (Association of Builders and Developers) membership is mandatory for Microsoft Pakistan, which is distrubuted either free or on token price with subsidy. Malak Sb., when are you inviting Nadhella for Nehari lunch @ Maliks, which chills the chilly effects. Microsoft is still not even in infancy for serious people. With the response from Nadhela looks like even ABAD will buy it for crush in concrete. Suggest please review your archives. Microsoft enforcement cell should also review the ATM (Automated Teller Machines) which are still using Windows 97 with no updates. Please update the banks with free Windows 10 with a public affair announcement with respective, rather than your PR agency. Please put your house to order. First give the country its due share for either token Rs.200 or Rs.300-00 for Windows licensing, and charge Rs.500-00 for Office 365 for three licenses in order to take off. This could also be done virtually by Microsoft or Nadhella with ABAD labor. We are waiting for the dawn of Office 365-00 for three license standards PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone


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