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.
“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.” pakistani sxs
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). “The old way was donkeys—slow, needing rest
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. You cannot put a license plate on one
“Chinese parts are everywhere,” notes Yasir from a Saddar auto market. “You can fix a broken axle on a CFMOTO in a village workshop with a hammer and a welding rod. A Polaris? You wait three months for a belt from the US.” The SXS boom has a shadow economy. Due to high customs duties on fully built units, many high-end SXS vehicles enter Pakistan not via the Karachi port, but through the porous Torkham and Chaman borders with Afghanistan. These vehicles are often purchased in Dubai, driven to Kabul (where duties are negligible), and then smuggled south.
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.
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.