Your Pakistan. Your Journey.
Can a car still use a Pakistani motorway without M-Tag? The official answer has been “yes, but it costs more”, rather than “no entry”. The National Highway Authority notified a 50 per cent additional toll for vehicles with no M-Tag or an insufficient balance, which took effect on 15 June 2025 across the M-1, M-2, M-3, M-4, M-5, M-9, M-14 and E-35, and the Islamabad High Court then suspended that notification on 3 July 2026 pending a full hearing. So the rule is currently in legal limbo, and the only safe planning assumption for anyone driving the motorway without mtag is that the price can change at short notice. For a buyer hiring a car with a driver, the practical answer is simpler: the tag, its balance and the tolls are the operator’s problem, and your quote should say exactly how they reach your bill.
This guide connects the rule to the paperwork. It covers who holds the tag in a chauffeured car and a self-drive rental, how tolls and parking should be passed through, the airport charges that quietly appear on pickups, and the line items to settle before you accept any intercity quote.
Decision summary: the four questions that matter
If you read nothing else, get written answers to these before accepting a quote:
- Whose tag is on the windscreen? For a car with a driver it should be the operator’s or vehicle owner’s account, never yours.
- Are tolls included or passed through? Either is acceptable. Silence is not.
- Who absorbs a surcharge if the tag balance runs dry? That is an operator failure and should never be re-billed to the passenger.
- Is parking and airport waiting priced by the clock or capped? Airport car parks charge by the hour, and the quote should say whether that is in or out.
What M-Tag is and where M-Tag is mandatory on motorways
M-Tag is Pakistan’s electronic toll sticker: a windscreen tag linked to a prepaid account, read at the plaza so the toll is deducted without a cash stop. It began as a requirement for commercial traffic. In March 2018 ProPakistani reported that commercial vehicles on the Lahore-Islamabad motorway had until 31 March 2018 to register, with a Rs 300 penalty for entering without a tag after the deadline. Registration then needed a CNIC, driving licence and vehicle registration documents, with top-ups through JazzCash, the FWO Smart Motorways app, the FWO website or scratch cards.
That 2018 rule was aimed at commercial traffic. The push that reached ordinary cars came in 2025, when the NHA’s surcharge notice named the full list of motorways it applied to and turned an untagged car from a convenience problem into a cost problem.
The network covered by the 2025 surcharge
According to Geo News’ report of the NHA enforcement, the extra 50 per cent applied from 15 June 2025 to:
- M-1 Islamabad to Peshawar
- M-2 Lahore to Islamabad
- M-3 Pindi Bhattian to Multan
- M-4 Faisalabad to Multan
- M-5 Multan to Sukkur
- M-9 Karachi to Hyderabad
- M-14 D.I. Khan to Hakla
- E-35 Hassanabdal to Mansehra
That list is the working definition of where the m tag mandatory motorways question bites. National highways such as the GT Road (N-5) have their own toll arrangements and do not appear on that motorway list. If you only drive the N-5 from Rawalpindi to Jhelum, a missing tag is not your constraint; traffic is.
Penalties for vehicles without M-Tag: what is actually in force
Three dated facts frame the penalty question, and the order matters.
| Date | What happened | What it means for a hired car |
|---|---|---|
| 30 May 2025 | NHA issued the notification imposing a 50% additional toll on motorway vehicles without M-Tag or with insufficient balance | Untagged or under-funded vehicles face a higher plaza charge |
| 15 June 2025 | Surcharge enforced across eight motorways and expressways, per Geo News | Operators without working tags start paying half as much again per trip |
| 3 July 2026 | Islamabad High Court suspended the notification on an interim basis and asked the NHA and federation to respond; the next hearing was listed for 3 August 2026 | The surcharge is legally frozen for now, but the case is live and the outcome can reinstate or cancel it |
The court order is reported in Dawn’s account of the IHC hearing. The petitioner, advocate Muhammad Jalal Haider, asked for the notification to be declared of no legal effect and for collected amounts to be refunded, and also sought details of how M-Tag balances are managed. We have not seen a final judgment. Before a long motorway day, check the latest NHA or court news rather than relying on any blog, including this one.
The quiet version of the penalty: a low balance
The 2025 notice caught not just untagged cars but tagged cars with insufficient balance. In practice this is the more common failure. A driver starts a Lahore-Islamabad run with a thin balance, the plaza reads the tag, and the vehicle is treated as underfunded. When a driver asks a passenger for cash at a plaza “because the tag is empty”, that is a sign of weak fleet control, and it is fair to ask the operator to settle it on the invoice rather than out of your pocket.
Who pays motorway toll in a taxi or hired car
The honest answer to who pays motorway toll in taxi journeys is: the passenger pays it economically, one way or another, but should never pay it operationally. The toll is a real cost of the route. The question is only whether it is folded into the price or listed separately.
Model 1: toll-inclusive fare
The operator quotes one figure for the journey and carries the toll inside it. This is the tidiest model for travellers booking from the UK or the Gulf, because nothing changes hands at the plaza. The risk for the operator is a mid-season toll revision. The NHA’s Finance Wing issued a revised toll schedule effective 10 July 2026, reported by ProPakistani with car rates such as Rs 700 on the M-1 and Rs 1,350 on the M-4. An inclusive quote issued before a revision should either honour the old figure or state that it follows the schedule in force on the travel date.
Model 2: toll pass-through at cost
The quote shows the base fare and a separate toll line, charged at the published rate for the plazas actually used. This suits corporate buyers who reconcile expenses, because the line can be checked against the official schedule. A fair pass-through carries no markup and no “handling” fee, and it is billed per plaza or per section, not rounded up.
Model 3: passenger pays at the plaza
This is the model to avoid for tagged motorways. With M-Tag deductions happening electronically on the operator’s account, there should be nothing for a passenger to hand over. Cash-at-the-window arrangements also leave you with no receipt that ties to your booking.
Our own guide to motorway tolls and drive times on the M-1, M-2 and M-4 sets out the route timings; this article is about the billing layer on top of them.
M-Tag for a rental car: chauffeured versus self-drive
The tag question splits cleanly by hire type, and the split explains most disputes.
| Point | Car with driver | Self-drive rental |
|---|---|---|
| Whose tag | Operator or vehicle owner’s account | Usually the rental owner’s account, registered to the vehicle |
| Who keeps it funded | Operator, before dispatch | Agree in writing: owner tops up, or you top up and are credited |
| How tolls reach you | Inclusive fare or pass-through line | Deducted from the tag, then settled on return against a statement |
| Surcharge for low balance | Operator’s cost | Depends on who was responsible for the balance at the time |
| What to ask for | Toll line or “tolls included” wording on the quote | Opening balance, closing balance and the plaza history |
Self-drive: the m-tag for rental car checklist
If you are driving yourself, the tag is tied to the car’s registration rather than to you, which means you inherit whatever balance the car leaves the yard with. Before you drive off:
- Confirm a tag is fitted and active. Ask to see it on the windscreen rather than taking it on trust.
- Get the opening balance in writing or as a screenshot from the owner’s account.
- Agree who tops it up mid-trip, and how. A top-up you make on someone else’s account needs a receipt that names the vehicle.
- Agree how deductions are settled at return. The fairest method is the tag statement, plaza by plaza.
- Ask what happens if the car is charged a surcharge because the balance ran out on your watch. Get the answer before the argument, not during it.
Visitors also need to satisfy themselves on licensing and insurance for self-drive, which is outside the scope of this piece. Many overseas travellers conclude that a car with a driver is simpler precisely because the tag, plaza and parking layer disappears from their responsibilities.
Airport parking fee in Pakistan: the charge on almost every pickup
Motorway tolls get the attention, but the charge most likely to appear unexpectedly on an arrival transfer is the airport parking fee. Airport car parks charge by time, and at Islamabad the published tariff applies to commercial vehicles as well as private cars. Other airports publish their own rates, so check the relevant airport’s site.
Islamabad International Airport, current tariff
The official parking page for Islamabad International Airport lists a tariff effective 1 July 2026 for private and commercial vehicles:
- Rs 130 for the first three hours
- Rs 80 for each additional hour
- Rs 980 for a daily pass
- Rs 1,000 violation fine for vehicles left in no-parking areas
The same page schedules annual increases through 2028 and lists capacity of 2,200 vehicles. Worked example, using that tariff: a driver who enters the car park 45 minutes before a scheduled landing and drives out with the passengers two and a half hours after touchdown has been inside for three and a quarter hours, so the charge is Rs 130 for the first three hours plus Rs 80 for the part-hour, or Rs 210, assuming part-hours are billed as full hours. A delayed flight that stretches the wait to six hours would cost Rs 130 plus three extra hours at Rs 80, or Rs 370. Small sums, but they are real, they are receipted, and they should be pre-agreed.
The drop lane is not a waiting area
The Airport Security Force’s instructions are blunt: do not park in the drop lane, and vehicles that do may be removed by forklift, penalised and possibly damaged. The ASF also asks for the minimum number of meeters and greeters. For a buyer this means the driver will wait in the paid car park, not at the kerb, so the parking line is not an optional extra someone has invented. It is the cost of doing the pickup legally.
For the arrivals side of Islamabad specifically, our Islamabad airport taxi and transfers page explains what we ask for at booking, including flight number and scheduled time.
City parking on driver days and multi-stop trips
On a day hire in Lahore or Rawalpindi, the car may sit outside a hospital, a shopping mall, a wedding hall or a government office several times. Those sites set their own parking arrangements, and there is no national tariff to point to, so the contract has to do the work. Three sensible options:
- Parking included within a stated daily cap, with anything above the cap re-billed against slips.
- Parking passed through at cost against slips or photos, with no markup.
- Passenger pays on the spot, which is acceptable for a family day out as long as it is agreed in advance.
What is not acceptable is a round “parking and misc” figure added after the trip with nothing behind it.
Line items to settle before accepting a quote
A good intercity quote reads like a small contract. Before you accept, check that each of these is either priced, included or explicitly excluded:
| Line item | Acceptable wording | Reject if |
|---|---|---|
| Motorway tolls | “Tolls included” or “tolls at published rate, per plaza used” | Blank, or “tolls extra” with no basis |
| M-Tag surcharge | “Operator maintains tag and balance; surcharges not re-billed” | The passenger is asked to cover a tag shortfall |
| Toll revision | “Fare fixed at quote” or “tolls follow the schedule in force on travel date” | Open-ended right to reprice after acceptance |
| Airport parking | Included up to a stated wait, or at the posted tariff with receipt | A flat “airport fee” with no link to time or receipt |
| Waiting time | Free period stated, then an hourly rate | No free period and no rate |
| City parking | Cap, pass-through, or passenger-pays, agreed in advance | Lump sum added afterwards |
| Driver overnight | Accommodation and meals included or priced per night | Discovered on the day |
| Return empty leg | Stated as included in a one-way price, or priced separately | Appears only on the final invoice |
Our terms of hire set out how we handle these points, and you can hold any operator to the same standard. Our sister service Pakistan Taxi, the family-focused brand that runs on the iDrive network, has a plain-language checklist on what a city-to-city travel quote should include, which is useful if you are sorting out a trip for relatives rather than a business itinerary.
How this plays out on common routes
The same principles apply differently depending on the road.
Islamabad or Rawalpindi to Lahore
This is the M-2, the motorway where M-Tag started. It produces one of the bigger toll lines on a family trip: Geo’s 2025 surcharge report gave Rs 1,800 as an example car rate for Islamabad-Lahore, which shows how much the tag question can move the bill. That is where an inclusive fare earns its keep. If the pickup is Islamabad International Airport, put the airport car park on the same quote.
Islamabad to Peshawar
The M-1 carries a lower car toll on the July 2026 schedule, but the bigger planning issue is not the plaza. The FCDO’s warnings for Pakistan advise against all travel to Peshawar, including the city, and note that travel insurance could be invalidated by travelling against that advice. UK travellers should read it before asking anyone for a quote on this road.
Multan, Faisalabad and the south
The M-4 and M-5 both appear on the 2025 surcharge list and carry some of the higher car tolls on the 2026 schedule, so a long southern leg can stack several toll sections. Ask for the toll line to be broken down by motorway, which makes it easy to check against the published rates.
For route pages, vehicle options and how we plan long legs, see our city-to-city taxi service in Pakistan.
If you also travel in Saudi Arabia
If your year includes both Pakistan and the Gulf, the same discipline applies at the other end. Saudi airports and roads raise their own line items, but the principle of “stated, receipted, no surprises” is identical. Our sister company Saudi Cab Co explains how airport surcharges and toll transparency work in Saudi Arabia, which is worth reading if you are pricing an Umrah trip and a Pakistan visit in the same month.
What to do next
Put the checklist to work on a real trip:
- Write down the route, pickup point and whether an airport is involved.
- Ask each operator for a written quote that shows tolls, parking and waiting as separate lines or as explicit inclusions.
- Ask directly who holds the M-Tag and who covers a surcharge if the balance fails.
- Compare the quotes on the same basis, not on the headline figure alone.
- Keep the accepted quote and any receipts until the final invoice is settled.
When you are ready, you can send your journey details through the iDrive booking page. We will come back with a quote that shows how tolls and parking are treated. A quote is not a confirmed booking, and vehicle availability is confirmed only once we have checked it for your date.
Questions people ask
Can I drive on the motorway without M-Tag?
Vehicles without a tag, or with a low balance, were charged 50% extra from 15 June 2025. The Islamabad High Court suspended that surcharge on 3 July 2026 pending a hearing. Check current NHA and court news before travelling, because the position can change.
Who pays the motorway toll in a taxi or car with driver?
The toll is part of the trip cost, so the passenger pays it through the fare. It should either be included in the quote or listed as a pass-through at the published rate. Passengers should not be asked for cash at a tagged plaza.
Does a rental car come with an M-Tag?
It may, and the tag is linked to the vehicle’s account rather than to the driver. Ask for the opening balance, agree who tops it up, and settle deductions against the plaza statement at return.
How much is parking at Islamabad airport for a pickup?
From 1 July 2026 the official tariff for private and commercial cars is Rs 130 for the first three hours and Rs 80 per extra hour, with a Rs 980 day pass. Rates are scheduled to rise each July, so check the airport’s parking page.
