Reporting snapshot · 1 October 2026. The federal Cabinet Division issued a press release late on 30 September defending its decision to procure 45 bulletproof luxury sedans for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) Council of Heads of State summit that Pakistan is scheduled to host in Islamabad in August-September 2027. The combined bill — 15 BMW 760i xDrive (VR9) cars at Rs3 billion and 30 Mercedes-Maybach S680 Guard (VR10) cars at Rs6.6 billion — totals about Rs9.6 billion. The statement was circulated by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on X after criticism from opposition politicians and the public. This account draws on the Cabinet Division text as carried by Khawaja Asif, plus reporting by Geo News, The Express Tribune and Pakistan Today. No fresh procurement order or supplementary grant has been issued since the two Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approvals earlier in September.
What happened
Late on Wednesday, 30 September, the Cabinet Division issued a press release defending the federal government’s procurement of 45 bulletproof luxury sedans for the SCO Council of Heads of State summit that Pakistan will host in Islamabad in August-September 2027, Geo News reported. The statement was posted by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on X and carried in full by both The Express Tribune and Pakistan Today.
The release sets out three core points: that Pakistan holds the SCO Council of Heads of State chair, which it took over at the Bishkek summit in September; that the 2027 summit will be the country’s “most high-profile gathering” since the 1973 OIC summit held in Lahore; and that the bulletproof fleet is required because the latest vehicles held by the Cabinet Division are “a few 2016 models” that fall “far below the standards required for the summit”.
The division said the decision to procure 45 vehicles, against an initial demand for 65, was taken after the question was “deliberated upon at several forums” and was endorsed by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and the ministries of foreign affairs and interior. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved the final number. The fleet will be supported by about 300 non-bulletproof vehicles that the government plans to hire for the summit, Pakistan Today reported.
What is being bought
The Cabinet Division’s statement, as quoted by The Express Tribune, breaks the 45-vehicle order into two distinct batches. The first, approved earlier in September by the ECC at Rs6.60 billion, is for 30 Mercedes-Maybach S680 Guard (VR10) sedans. The second, approved at a subsequent ECC meeting as a Rs3 billion technical supplementary grant, is for 15 BMW 760i xDrive (VR9) sedans, The Express Tribune reported. Together, the two grants total about Rs9.6 billion.
The ECC initially asked the Cabinet Division to “conduct a detailed assessment” after it had sought Rs12.6 billion for more than 50 vehicles in the original September proposal, Geo News reported. The two approvals together account for the 45 cars cited in the Cabinet Division’s defence. Pakistan Today, which gave the Rs9.6bn total, said the procurement is being treated as one of three transport layers for the summit, alongside the 300 hire cars and the existing non-bulletproof fleet.
The Cabinet Division said the vehicles are needed to transport visiting heads of state, heads of government and senior representatives of international organisations during the summit, which it described as the bloc’s “principal decision-making forum”. It cited Pakistan’s “security paradigm” and what it called “threats posed by hostile external elements” as additional reasons for buying new, higher-specification vehicles.
Why the pushback
The defence came after a wave of social media criticism and pushback from senior opposition politicians, prompted by an initial government push to relax the ban on new vehicles, The Express Tribune noted. Former senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who chairs the Senate Defence Committee, asked on X why the government was buying “45 bulletproof luxury limousines for Rs 9.6 billion for 9 leaders of SCO” while Pakistan was ranked worst-hit in the World Terrorism Index, Pakistan Today reported.
Former Sindh governor Mohammad Zubair Umar separately criticised “15 more most luxurious cars … each costing 20 crore rupees” as part of the government’s austerity measures. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf also rejected the purchase as inappropriate use of public funds. The Cabinet Division rejected these reactions as “sceptical and unwarranted” and said the criticism “seem[s] to have missed the context and perspective of the purchase”.
The statement emphasised that the bulletproof cars are “only one component” of the summit’s transport arrangements and that the non-bulletproof fleet of about 300 vehicles will be rented. It also asked citizens to view the hosting of the summit as “an honour for Pakistan” and to “support Government’s effort to organise it in a befitting manner”.
How the procurement was approved
The ECC, a Cabinet committee chaired by the finance minister, approves supplementary grants outside the budget cycle. The Rs6.60 billion grant for the Mercedes-Maybach fleet was approved earlier in September, after which the Cabinet Division was asked to “conduct a detailed assessment” of remaining requirements, Geo News reported. The Rs3 billion grant for the BMW line was approved at a subsequent meeting that also reviewed security arrangements used at the recent Bishkek summit.
The Cabinet Division said the prime minister approved 45 vehicles against the initially demanded 65 and called the final number the “bare minimum requirement”. The press release did not give a delivery date, identify the procurement route, or specify whether the vehicles will be imported directly or supplied through a government-to-government deal.
What the 2027 summit means for Pakistan
The 2027 summit will be the first time Pakistan hosts the SCO Council of Heads of State since Pakistan took the rotating chair for the 2026-27 term. The first session under the Pakistani chair opened in Islamabad on 28 September, KhabarWire reported at the time. The 2027 leaders’ meeting is expected to bring heads of state and senior officials from all ten SCO member states — China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus — to the federal capital.
The Cabinet Division described the summit as the country’s biggest hosting opportunity since the 1973 OIC summit in Lahore, and urged the public not to “underestimate, trivialise or politicise” the event. Hosting logistics, the statement said, must meet the same security protocols used during visits by heads of state and government — a benchmark the 2016-model vehicles in the current fleet do not clear.
What is still uncertain
The Cabinet Division has not released a procurement timetable, the source of the vehicles, or a delivery schedule for the 45 cars, or how the Rs9.6 billion will be reflected in the federal budget. The ECC summary of the second approval said the vehicles were necessary “for the security of heads of state” and stressed “the need for timely preparations for the summit”, but did not give a final arrival date.
It also remains unclear whether India’s prime minister will attend the Islamabad summit. The Bishkek summit produced the Bishkek Declaration without resolving how far the bloc should move toward an adversarial posture toward Western institutions, KhabarWire noted then. The same fault lines — Indian and Chinese strategic priorities, regional infrastructure financing, and counter-terror coordination through SCO-RATS, which Pakistan chairs — will frame the run-up.
Finally, the Cabinet Division did not address whether alternatives — renting the vehicles, sourcing used armoured sedans from allied governments, or pooling transport with the Pakistan Army’s fleet — were formally considered. Critics on social media asked the same question.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published material, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 1 October 2026.
- Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on X — Cabinet Division press release on the bulletproof vehicle purchase30 September 2026 · Primary record: full Cabinet Division statement naming 45 vehicles, the "bare minimum" rationale, and the 2016-model replacement context.
- Geo News — Govt defends purchase of 45 bulletproof vehicles for 2027 SCO summit security1 October 2026 · Independent reporting on the Cabinet Division defence, the two ECC approvals, and the 300-vehicle hire plan.
- The Express Tribune — Govt defends purchase of 45 bulletproof vehicles for SCO summit30 September 2026 · Independent reporting that breaks down the BMW 760i xDrive (VR9) and Mercedes-Maybach S680 Guard (VR10) models, the Rs6.6bn and Rs3bn ECC grants, and the Mushahid Hussain Sayed criticism.
- Pakistan Today — Govt defends Rs9.6bn bulletproof vehicle purchase for 2027 SCO summit30 September 2026 · Independent reporting that names the Rs9.6bn total, the 65-vehicle initial demand, and the criticism from former senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed and former Sindh governor Mohammad Zubair Umar.
