Pakistani Sxs Apr 2026

Mechanics call this the “Kabul Cut”—a rough welding job on the roll cage to fit the vehicle inside a covered truck. While the practice is illegal, it has saturated the grey market, making otherwise unaffordable machines accessible to mid-tier buyers. Not everyone is thrilled. Environmentalists in the northern valleys have begun protesting the use of SXS on fragile alpine meadows (margallas).

Furthermore, the legality is murky. The Excise and Taxation department generally considers SXS vehicles as “sporting machinery,” not road-legal vehicles. You cannot put a license plate on one. Yet, every evening in upscale neighborhoods, owners drive them to local chai shops, daring the traffic police to catch a vehicle that can jump a curb and disappear up a dirt track. Whispers in the auto industry suggest that a major Pakistani tractor manufacturer is in talks with a Chinese SXS brand to begin CKD (Completely Knocked Down) assembly in Faisalabad. If successful, the price of a brand-new, warrantied SXS could drop below PKR 1 million ($3,500).

In the mountainous north, these machines have become essential for search-and-rescue operations. After the 2022 floods, locally owned SXS units in Balochistan were the only vehicles able to navigate the broken spillways and mud-choked nullahs to deliver rations. Walk into any off-road gathering in Lahore’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) or a trailhead in Murree, and you will see a two-tier market. pakistani sxs

That would be a game-changer. At that price, the SXS stops being a toy for the rich or a smuggler’s prize. It becomes a rural household’s second car—one that can carry a family of six, a goat, and a water pump up a mountain that no sedan will ever see.

CFMOTO (specifically the ZForce series) and smaller Chinese brands like HISUN or Linhai. A used CFMOTO 800 EX can be had for PKR 1.5-2.5 million ($5,000-$9,000). Mechanics call this the “Kabul Cut”—a rough welding

CHITRAL, Pakistan – The narrow, switchback-laden trails of the Hindu Kush were once the exclusive domain of mules, jeeps, and the occasional hardy trekker. Today, the silence is broken by a different kind of beast: the growl of a 1,000cc twin-cylinder engine, the whine of a continuously variable transmission (CVT), and the crunch of all-terrain tires biting into loose shale.

Polaris RZRs and Can-Am Mavericks. These are the Ferraris of the dirt. A 2024 Polaris RZR Pro XP can cost upwards of PKR 8-12 million ($28,000–$43,000) after customs and shipping. These belong to the elite—the real estate developers, the retired generals, and the YouTubers. You cannot put a license plate on one

“These machines tear up the moss. It takes fifty years to grow back,” complains a local guide in Naltar Valley, who asked not to be named. “Tourists rent them for 15,000 rupees an hour, drive in circles, and leave behind oil drips and empty energy drink cans.”

“Farmers in Swat are using them to bring apples down from high orchards where a tractor cannot turn,” says Bilal Khan, an off-road mechanic in Islamabad who specializes in CFMOTO and Polaris models. “The old way was donkeys—slow, needing rest. The SXS makes five trips in one day.”

The Side-by-Side (SXS)—known colloquially as a “buggy” or simply “the four-seater”—has roared into Pakistan’s off-road scene. From the fertile tobacco fields of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the dunes of Tharparkar and the wealthy farmhouses of Punjab, these roll-caged machines are redefining adventure, agriculture, and access.