Gold Price in Pakistan Today

How the Karachi tola rate is set

Pakistan’s daily gold price per tola is announced by the sarafa (bullion) associations, and Karachi’s rate is the one the rest of the country follows. Jewelers in Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar usually quote within a small margin of it.

The association starts from the international dollar price, converts it at the rupee rate and then adds or subtracts a local premium. That premium widens when dollars are hard to obtain or gold imports are restricted, and it can turn into a discount when many families are selling at once. The rate is revised during the day when the world price or the rupee moves sharply.

The figure at the top of this page is the pure conversion, without that premium. Comparing the two tells you how much the local market is charging for scarcity on a given day.

Tola, masha and ratti

Older invoices and many small-town jewelers still weigh in the traditional subunits:

A ring written up as “4 masha 3 ratti” weighs 4 × 0.972 + 3 × 0.1215, or about 4.25 g.

Where the rate appears and how often it changes

The association’s rate is carried by newspapers, television tickers and jewelers’ own boards each morning. On volatile days it may be revised once or twice after the international market in London opens, which falls in the Pakistani afternoon. Small towns sometimes lag the Karachi figure by a few hours, so an out-of-date board can be above or below the current rate.

The sarafa rate is a reference, not a fixed price. Individual shops may sell slightly above it and will almost always buy below it; the spread between those two numbers is how a jeweler earns on plain gold.

The same notice usually carries a silver rate per tola and per 10 grams. Silver is bought in Pakistan mostly as utensils, anklets and as the base for the silver nisab, which is why it is quoted in the same traditional units as gold.

Checking a tola quote with a calculator

You can test whether a local quote is reasonable in under a minute:

1. Take the international price per troy ounce in dollars.
2. Multiply by 0.375, because one tola is 0.375 troy ounce.
3. Multiply by the rupee rate you can actually get, not the headline interbank figure.
4. For 22K multiply by 0.916; for 21K by 0.875.
5. Subtract your answer from the sarafa rate. What remains is the local premium.

A positive premium is normal. A very large one usually reflects the dollar market rather than the gold market, as happened when the open-market and interbank rupee rates drifted apart. Our tola price page does the first two steps in dollars for you.

Worked example: a 2-tola 21K set

Take an example 24K sarafa rate of Rs 300,000 per tola (for illustration only). The 21K rate is 300,000 × 0.875 = Rs 262,500 per tola, so 2 tola of metal comes to Rs 525,000. If the jeweler adds an example making charge of Rs 15,000 per tola, labor adds Rs 30,000 and the bill reaches Rs 555,000 before any tax.

Buying, selling and wedding gold in Pakistan

• Most bridal sets are 21K or 22K. Heavier Karachi and Lahore designs are often 21K because it holds stones better.
• Making charges may be quoted per tola or as one lump sum. Ask for them separately from the metal value.
• Stones, lac and wax fillings add weight but no gold. A buyer will deduct them when you sell.
• When you sell or exchange, jewelers apply a resale deduction. Ask for the percentage before they melt or test anything.
• Keep the receipt with karat and weight in tola, masha and ratti. It makes resale far easier.

For side-by-side purity maths see the 21K gold price.

Purity without a national hallmark

Pakistan does not have a compulsory hallmarking system like India’s BIS scheme, so purity rests on the jeweler’s stamp and reputation. Many sarafa bazaars now have electronic testing shops that give a karat reading in minutes. Urdu-speaking jewelers call the non-gold alloy khot; a piece sold as 22K but testing at 20K has two karats of extra khot, and its value falls accordingly.

Zakat and the 7.5 tola nisab

In South Asian practice the nisab for gold is usually stated as 7.5 tola, about 87.5 g. Households at or above it pay zakat of 2.5% of the value each lunar year. Scholars differ on whether jewelry worn regularly counts, and on how mixed gold and silver holdings combine, so families often ask a local scholar.

Bars, 10-gram quotes and wedding gold in Pakistan

Bullion in Pakistan is sold in tola sizes: 1-tola, 5-tola and 10-tola bars are the common ones, stamped 24K or 999. Their price is the sarafa 24K rate multiplied by the tola weight plus a small premium for small sizes.

Moving between tola and 10-gram rates

Newspapers print both a per-tola and a per-10-gram rate. They are the same price in different units: the 10-gram figure is the tola figure multiplied by 0.8574. If the two numbers in a report don’t match that ratio, one of them is stale.

Gold at Pakistani weddings

Wedding gold accounts for much of the country’s jewelry demand. The groom’s family traditionally gives jewelry to the bride, and families on both sides often save in gold for years before the event. Haq mehr, the bride’s right under the nikah contract, is sometimes stated in tola of gold rather than rupees, which protects its value against inflation.

Because the whole set may be bought over months, many families buy a few tola at a time when the rate dips, then hand the metal to a jeweler to be made up. That approach separates the metal decision from the labor decision.

Common mistakes

• Quoting a 24K tola rate when the jewelry is 21K.
• Paying for stone weight at the gold rate.
• Comparing a rate that includes making charges with one that does not.
• Selling to the first shop without a purity test from an independent tester.

Taxes, remittances and Gulf comparisons

Tax treatment on jewelry sales and gold imports has changed several times in recent budgets, so check current rules with the Federal Board of Revenue before a large purchase. Sellers may be asked for a CNIC on bigger transactions.

Millions of Pakistanis work in the Gulf, and many compare prices in Dubai or Riyadh with Karachi before buying wedding gold. The dirham and riyal pegs make Gulf quotes stable, while the rupee side moves daily. Pakistan’s baggage rules limit how much jewelry can come in duty-free, so the saving may shrink at the airport.

For the Gulf side, see the Dubai gold rate.

For the U.S. dollar benchmark, the gold price today page shows the spot price per ounce.

Short glossary

• Sarafa: the bullion trade and its bazaars.
• Tola: 11.664 g, the standard unit for quotes.
• Masha and ratti: one-twelfth and one ninety-sixth of a tola.
• Khot: the alloy portion that is not gold.

For rates across the region, open the gold price by country list.