Pakistan · served from Islamabad
Software house and development company in Pakistan
Yarqat is a Pakistani software house with one office, in Islamabad, building custom software and AI systems for businesses anywhere in the country. The work is priced in rupees, run by the senior engineer who scoped it, and handed over in full when it is done.
§ 01
The market
Building software for Pakistan
Buying software in Pakistan usually starts with the price. Vendors are everywhere: software houses in every large city, freelancers on every marketplace, and agencies that win a contract and quietly hand the build to a freelancer they found online. Quotes for the same brief can sit far apart, and the lowest one often wins. The cost arrives later. The source code was never handed over, the domain and hosting are in the vendor’s name, nothing was written down, and the one developer who understood the system has taken another job. Plenty of businesses have paid for the same app twice for exactly this reason.
Some things hold from Karachi to Peshawar. Prices are in rupees, and customers pay through JazzCash, Easypaisa, a Raast transfer or their bank app, while cash on delivery still settles much of what is ordered online. People reach a business on WhatsApp long before they try email, and they write in English, Urdu and Roman Urdu, often within a single line. Most are on an Android handset short of storage, running on a data bundle they paid for themselves, and the network or the electricity can drop without warning. Software designed on a fast laptop over office broadband tends to meet these conditions for the first time on launch day.
Yarqat SMC Private Limited is incorporated in Islamabad and registered with the SECP, and its single office is on Main Double Road in E-11/2. We have no branch, staff or address in any other city. A client in Lahore, Karachi or Quetta works with the same small team as a client across the road from us, mostly over video calls and a shared tracker, on Pakistan Standard Time, contracted locally and billed in rupees. Where a decision really needs a room, we plan a visit. Whoever scopes your project stays on it to the end, and the code, documentation and accounts are yours when it finishes.
§ 02
What is specific
What building for Pakistan actually requires
Questions to put to any software house
Whichever vendor you choose, a few answers tell you more than a portfolio. Who will actually write the code, and are they employed by the firm or subcontracted? Will the repository, hosting, domain and app store accounts be registered to you from the first week? What documentation and tests come with the handover? Who fixes a bug six months after launch, and at what rate? A software house that answers all four plainly, in writing, is worth more than a cheaper one that changes the subject. We put our answers in the proposal before you ask.
What changes between provinces
Sales tax on services is provincial, so a business with branches in more than one province meets more than one regime. The Punjab Revenue Authority collects it in Punjab, the Sindh Revenue Board in Sindh and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority in KP, Balochistan has its own authority, and in Islamabad the FBR collects it. Each runs its own registration and returns, so national invoicing has to know which authority every invoice falls under. Language shifts too: Punjabi and Saraiki in Punjab, Sindhi in Sindh, Pashto and Hindko in KP. Your tax adviser decides what applies; we make the software follow it.
Selling at home or selling abroad
Pakistani buyers of software tend to fall into two groups. Businesses selling inside the country need rupee pricing, wallets and cash on delivery, WhatsApp as a sales channel and Urdu where customers expect it. Companies selling abroad, from software exporters registered with the Pakistan Software Export Board to manufacturers shipping goods, need a different face: English-first, credible to a buyer in Europe or the Gulf, billing in foreign currency through a provider that will onboard a Pakistani company, and code that survives a client’s security questionnaire. Many firms do both, and we plan for that split before the first screen is drawn.
§ 03
Working together
How working with us goes, anywhere in Pakistan
- 01
One first call, from any city
The first conversation is a free video call with the senior engineer who would lead your project, wherever in Pakistan you are. We talk through the problem, the constraints and the budget, and tell you plainly if we are not the right team.
- 02
A proposal that answers the hard questions
A written proposal with the approach, the main risks and a price range in rupees, plus straight answers on who writes the code, whose name the accounts are in and what support after launch costs. Nothing that matters is left for later.
- 03
Remote by default, visits on merit
Day-to-day work happens over video calls and a shared tracker. Rawalpindi is next door, Peshawar two hours along the M-1, Lahore and Faisalabad a motorway drive, Karachi a flight. We travel when a workshop, a factory floor or a go-live needs us there.
- 04
Everything in your name
Repository, hosting, domain and documentation are registered to you from the start, so the handover is a formality. Any competent team in any city could continue the work after us.
§ 05
Services
What we build for Pakistan clients
Project delivery, owned end to end. We take on the outcome rather than supplying engineering hours.
Working with Yarqat in Pakistan
Which cities in Pakistan do you work with?
Any of them. Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Multan and Sialkot have their own pages here because we have written about their markets in detail, but a business in Quetta, Hyderabad or Gujranwala is served exactly the same way. Yarqat has a single office, in E-11/2, Islamabad, and no branch in any other city. Work runs remotely in one timezone, and visits are planned when they are worth the journey.
Why do quotes from Pakistani software houses differ so much for the same project?
Mostly because they are not quoting for the same thing. One price includes design, tests, documentation, deployment and a period of support; another covers screens that work in a demo and nothing after. Some firms subcontract the build, while others price in maintenance they expect you to need. Compare what each quote includes line by line, and ask who owns the code. Our proposals list what is in and what is out, so the comparison is fair.
Should we hire a freelancer or a software house?
For a small, well-defined job, a good freelancer can be the sensible choice, provided the code and accounts are in your name. The risk is that everything depends on one person. A software house earns its higher price only if it brings what one person cannot: code review, continuity when someone is ill or leaves, and proper documentation. If an agency is simply passing your work to a freelancer, you pay the higher price and keep the single-person risk.
Who owns the code, hosting and accounts when the project ends?
You do, and ideally from the first week rather than at the end. We set up the repository, cloud hosting, domain and any app store listings under your organisation, with our engineers added as users you can remove. The code, designs and documentation belong to you. If you ever part ways with us, you revoke our access and carry on without asking anyone for a password.
What changes if we sell to customers outside Pakistan?
Mostly the parts the buyer sees, plus billing. Export-facing software is usually English-first, has to load quickly abroad and must look credible to a buyer who has never visited Pakistan. Billing needs a provider that accepts Pakistani companies and pays out to a Pakistani bank account. PSEB registration and the tax treatment of export income are matters for you and your adviser; we build the product, catalogue or client portal the export business runs on.
Have a project in Pakistan?
Tell us what you are building or fixing. We work with Pakistan clients from our Islamabad office, in the same timezone and the same currency, and the engineer who reads this is the one who would run the delivery.
- 01A senior engineer reads it. Not a form queue, and not an account manager.
- 02We reply either with questions or with a straight answer that we are not the right fit.
- 03If it looks like a fit, a technical call with the person who would actually run the delivery.
- 04Then scope, effort and risk in writing, before anyone signs anything.