ISLAMABAD: Pakistani technology firms operating in Saudi Arabia said this week Houthi attacks on the Kingdom are disrupting business, delaying projects and holding up new investments, threatening growth in one of Pakistan’s most important overseas IT markets.

The warnings follow a series of deadly attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, including a strike on Saturday that killed 12 people and injured 309, followed by another on Sunday that killed a Pakistani national and wounded 11 others.

The disruption comes as Saudi Arabia emerges as an increasingly important market for Pakistani technology companies, driven by the Kingdom’s investments in digital infrastructure, cloud computing and enterprise services under its Vision 2030 economic diversification program. Pakistan’s technology exports reached a record $4.6 billion in the fiscal year ended June 2026, up 21 percent from a year earlier.

Executives interviewed by Arab News said Saudi clients were reviewing budgets, postponing investments and delaying decisions on new projects as uncertainty over the security situation grows, potentially affecting Pakistani companies’ earnings and future expansion.

“Regarding the current situation, it is quite unpredictable at the moment,” said Shumail Haider, country head of the IT division at Jeddah-based Typical Solution. “Companies are being affected in one way or another. The whole ecosystem … is being affected.”

“Specifically, for the IT companies … there was a lot of investment expected, which is on hold now,” he added. “The existing projects have been paused and new projects are being delayed.”

Haider said the attacks were compounding pressures from regional tensions, supply chain disruptions and higher fuel costs, making it harder for businesses to plan investments and maintain normal operations.

Saad Shah, founder and chief executive of Hexalyze, an enterprise technology consultancy with an office in Riyadh, said Saudi Arabia’s reputation for safety had been a major attraction for Pakistani firms seeking to establish themselves in the Kingdom.

But the recent attacks had introduced uncertainty, prompting some corporate clients to reassess their spending plans, he said.

“We work with large enterprises,” Shah said, explaining that such companies generally operate within predetermined budgets.

“Most of the organizations are thinking of cutting their budget according to their situation,” he added, saying the spending reviews were directly affecting his business.

Shah cautioned that it was too early to assess the full commercial impact of the attacks, although he said business activity had already slowed as companies evaluated the security situation.

The potential consequences are significant for Pakistan, which has increasingly relied on technology services to expand exports and earn foreign exchange.

Information Technology Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja said in July Pakistan’s information and communications technology exports had risen 21 percent to $4.6 billion in the 2025-26 fiscal year, reflecting growing overseas demand for Pakistani software, outsourcing and digital services.

Saudi Arabia has become an important destination for Pakistani technology companies and freelancers seeking contracts in a market undergoing rapid digital transformation.

“Saudi Arabia is a major market for the Pakistan IT industry as well as for the freelancers,” Shah said. “If the region is affected due to war and this sort of situation, definitely the export growth will be slow for the next year.”

The risks extend beyond technology exports because Saudi Arabia is also Pakistan’s largest source of workers’ remittances, making any prolonged disruption to employment and business activity a concern for the wider economy.

Pakistan received nearly $10.9 billion in remittances during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, including $899.1 million from Saudi Arabia in September alone, according to central bank figures.

Shah said large numbers of Pakistanis worked in Saudi Arabia across construction, finance, health care and technology, while more Pakistani businesses had established local offices to serve Saudi clients.

A prolonged slowdown could affect companies’ export earnings and, if it spread to employment, the incomes of Pakistani expatriates. Neither executive, however, provided estimates of potential financial losses or reported job cuts linked to the attacks.

Haider said the longer the instability persisted, the greater the potential damage to investment and commercial activity.

“We hope this would settle down soon, but it seems that if it does not, then we will have far more effect than it is right now,” he said.