What is .پاکستان?
IANA delegated .پاکستان on February 15, 2017, as part of the effort to let people use domain names entirely in their own script.
A little context on Pakistan: the capital is Islamabad, languages include English and Urdu, the currency is the Pakistani rupee (PKR) and the international dialing code is +92.
Next door on the map, you'll find .af for Afghanistan, .cn for China, .in for India and .ir for Iran.
IANA lists National Telecommunication Corporation as the manager of .پاکستان, with an address in Pakistan. ccTLD managers set their own policies — who can register, which second-level names exist, pricing to registrars — so those rules differ from country to country.
Under the hood, the root zone points to 3 name servers for .پاکستان, none of them with an IPv6 address. The delegation is DNSSEC-signed, so resolvers can verify that answers for .پاکستان haven't been tampered with on the way.
Pakistan also has another country-code domain in the root zone: .pk.
.پاکستان FAQ
What country is .پاکستان?
.پاکستان is the country-code top-level domain for Pakistan, in Southern Asia.
Who owns the .پاکستان domain?
IANA lists National Telecommunication Corporation as the manager of .پاکستان: it runs the registry and sets the rules for Pakistan's ccTLD. Individual .پاکستان names belong to whoever registers them.
Can I register a .پاکستان domain from the US?
It depends on National Telecommunication Corporation's policy. Some ccTLDs are open to anyone in the world, while others require a local address, company or trademark. Check the registry or an accredited registrar before you buy.
Is .پاکستان DNSSEC-signed?
Yes. The root zone has a DS record for .پاکستان, so DNSSEC validation works all the way down from the root.
How is .پاکستان written in the DNS?
As the ASCII "A-label" xn--mgbai9azgqp6j. Browsers convert it back to .پاکستان for display.
Sources
Data from IANA root zone version 2026102000. Last changed February 11, 2026. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
