eSIM for Pakistan with data from the moment you land

Does an eSIM work in Pakistan?

Yes. Pakistan supports eSIM, and a travel eSIM for Pakistan is a data-only profile you download from a QR code onto a handset that supports eSIM, so you land in Islamabad, Lahore or Karachi already connected instead of queuing at an arrivals counter. Your usual line stays in the phone and keeps your own number reachable for calls, texts and the codes your bank sends; the eSIM carries mobile data and nothing else. The plan does not start counting when you pay for it, but when the profile first connects to a network in Pakistan.

What doctorSIM gives you on a Pakistan eSIM

• Check the destination before you pay: Pakistan is one of the more than 150 destinations listed one by one in the doctorSIM eSIM destination directory, so you can confirm it is covered before you spend anything.
• QR code by email as soon as you pay: nothing to post, nothing to collect and no counter to find at the airport.
• Installed in the UK, activated in Pakistan: the profile sits dormant on the handset until it first registers on a network there, so the plan is not burning while you are still at home.
• Hotspot included: share the connection with a laptop, a tablet or a relative’s phone.
• Top-ups from your account: more data without a second QR code and without reinstalling the profile.
• 4.2 out of 5 from 27,542 Trustpilot reviews of doctorSIM, as shown on this page in August 2026.

eSIM, a local SIM card or roaming on your UK plan

What decides it is timing. A doctorSIM eSIM is on the handset before you take off, a local SIM card cannot be bought until after you have landed, and roaming needs no setup at all but you only find out what it cost once you are home.

What you need before you buy

Four things, and you can check all four in a couple of minutes.

• A handset that supports eSIM. Dial *#06# on the phone you are taking: if a code labelled EID appears next to the IMEI, it supports eSIM. In practice that means iPhone XS or newer, Pixel 3 or newer and most higher-end Android models from 2018 onwards, listed model by model in the doctorSIM eSIM compatibility checker.
• An unlocked handset, not tied to a single UK network.
• Wi-Fi at the moment you install it. Installing an eSIM needs an internet connection; using it afterwards does not.
• Pakistan listed as a destination by whoever you buy from. An eSIM only connects in the countries its plan covers, and plenty of well-known providers leave Pakistan out.

How to set up your Pakistan eSIM, in the order that works

Install it at home over Wi-Fi and switch it on after you land, never the other way round.

1. Buy the plan and open the email with the QR code. Save it so you can still open it with no connection.
2. Scan the QR code while you are on Wi-Fi in the UK: settings, then mobile or connections, then add eSIM, then scan.
3. Leave the new line switched off once it is installed. The profile stays dormant and the plan does not start counting while it is off.
4. After you land in Pakistan, switch the eSIM line on and turn data roaming on for that line. This is the step people get wrong: with data roaming off on the eSIM line you stay offline even though the installation was perfect.
5. Set the eSIM as your mobile data line and leave your usual SIM on for calls and texts, so your UK number stays reachable without any data running through it.

What the Pakistan plans cover

The doctorSIM catalogue for Pakistan runs from 1 GB up to 50 GB, with validity from 3 days up to 90 days, and it includes unlimited-data plans aimed at short trips. Every plan is data only, and any of them can be topped up from your doctorSIM account without scanning a second QR code or reinstalling the profile. The line-up moves as plans are added and withdrawn, so check the plan cards on this page before you buy.

Where the connection holds up, and where it does not

Mobile data is dependable across Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad, and along the motorways that link them. It thins out in the northern mountains, around Gilgit-Baltistan, Hunza and the Karakoram Highway, exactly as it does on a local SIM card, so download offline maps before you leave the city. If you fly into Islamabad or Sialkot and drive on to Mirpur, Gujrat or Jhelum, that route is built up the whole way and the connection follows the road.