Smart glasses with a built-in camera, such as Meta’s Ray-Ban models, are set to become harder to bring into Pakistan. At a meeting on 4 November chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, the cabinet’s economic committee, the ECC, signed off on curbs on bringing them in.
Provinces and the capital territory were also asked to write their own rules on wearing them at work. So employers, and not only customs, may soon have to set a position.
The official summary of the meeting, carried by Radio Pakistan, gives the glasses two lines, between approvals of grants for water and defence projects. It does not say whether the restriction is a ban, a licence requirement or a duty, which customs notification will carry it, or from what date. It also says nothing about glasses already in people’s hands.
Punjab moved first. In October its Home Department used section 144 to bar anyone from wearing or selling these glasses, and hidden cameras built into pens or key chains, for 30 days. The order lists airports, exam halls, hospitals, malls, courts and government buildings as places of concern, and it leaves out PTA-approved phones, laptops and tablets as well as police and other law enforcement staff. Its stated worry is secret recording, especially of women and children.
What worries officials is how little a wearer gives away. Ray-Ban Meta glasses take photos and record video through cameras set into the frame, and the only visible sign is a small LED that lights up during capture. Punjab’s order describes devices able to capture and pass on speech, images, video and sound, and calls that a risk to public order, individual privacy and the security of sensitive sites.
A court case sits behind the federal step. A petition in the Lahore High Court challenges the unchecked import and sale of glasses fitted with cameras and microphones, and the petitioner’s lawyer said Meta’s pairs are on open sale in Lahore, online and in shops, although Meta lists no official Pakistan market. The court asked the federal government to put the matter before the cabinet, which the ECC has now taken up.
For buyers, the practical effect depends on the notification still to come. Anyone who has bought a pair, or is thinking of one, should note that the Punjab order is a separate measure from the import curbs. That order runs for 30 days unless the province withdraws it earlier.
