22K Gold Rate in Pakistan Today

Walk into any Saraffa shop in Karachi's Sarafa Bazaar, Lahore's Anarkali, or Islamabad's Aabpara market and ask to see a bridal set. What the jeweller pulls out from the velvet trays will almost certainly be stamped 916 — that's the international shorthand for 22-karat gold, denoting 916 parts of pure gold per 1,000. The same shorthand is recognised across the subcontinent, in Dubai's Gold Souk, and at every reputable refiner in Pakistan.

22K hits the practical sweet spot that pure gold cannot. The 8.3% of non-gold metal — usually copper, sometimes silver, occasionally both — is what gives a 22K bangle the structural strength to be worn daily without bending out of shape. Copper-heavy 22K leans warmer in colour with a faint rose tint (the look most associated with traditional Punjabi designs). Silver-heavy 22K looks paler and cooler, closer to a Karachi or Hyderabadi aesthetic. The gold content is the same in both cases; the visible difference comes from the alloy mix the jeweller chooses.

Because 22K is the working metal of the Pakistani jewellery trade, the local market for it is unusually liquid. You can almost always sell a 22K piece back to the jeweller who made it, or to any other reputable shop, at the day's published rate minus a small assaying allowance. Try doing the same with 18K imported jewellery and the offers tend to be lower, because the secondary market is thinner outside the major cities.

A traditional Pakistani bridal set — necklace, earrings, jhumar or matha patti, multiple bangle sets, and a ring — typically runs between 8 and 20 tolas of 22K gold, depending on the family, region, and design density. At the current 22K tola rate alone, that is already a significant sum, but the printed shop bill will be substantially higher than 8 × (tola rate) for a reason many first-time bridal-set buyers don't anticipate: banwai charges.

Banwai is the jeweller's making charge — the labour cost of converting raw 22K bullion into a finished piece. It is quoted either per tola (for simpler items like plain bangles) or as a percentage of the gold value (for intricate work like kundan, meenakari, or jali). In our tracking, banwai for everyday Karachi-style 22K bangles runs PKR 8,000–18,000 per tola, mid-range bridal necklaces sit at 12–18% of gold value, and high-craft pieces with stone setting or hand-engraved meenakari can reach 25–30%. Banwai is non-refundable when you sell the piece back: the jeweller pays only for the gold by weight.

This is why many Pakistani families practise tabdeel — exchanging an older 22K piece for a new design rather than selling and re-buying. In tabdeel, the jeweller weighs your old gold, deducts a small loss (usually 1–3% to cover refining and assaying), credits you the balance against the new piece, and charges banwai only on the difference. For a household recycling a mother's bridal set into a daughter's, this can save tens of thousands of rupees compared to a fresh purchase at the same tola rate.

A reputable 22K shop bill in Pakistan should show, at minimum, four numbers separately: gross weight of the piece, the karat stamp (22K / 916), the gold rate per tola for the day the bill is issued, and the banwai charge — either as a per-tola figure or a percentage. If the bill collapses everything into a single "total" line without a per-tola gold rate breakdown, you don't actually know what you're paying for, and resale negotiations later will be harder.

Two specific things to watch for. First, wastage — some jewellers add a 1–5% wastage line on top of the gross weight, especially for filigree or jali work. This is real (some gold is genuinely lost in shaping), but the percentage is negotiable and varies widely shop to shop. Second, stone weight. If a piece is set with kundan, polki, or coloured stones, the stones are weighed together with the gold and you're effectively paying gold prices for non-gold weight. A serious jeweller will list stones separately and weigh the gold only after settings are accounted for.

22K is the right answer for almost any wearable Pakistani jewellery, but it's the wrong answer in a few specific situations worth naming.

If your purpose is pure investment — storing rupee wealth as gold rather than buying jewellery — 24K bars and coins are more efficient. You skip the banwai charge (which you'll never recover on sale), and 24K is recognised internationally without the assaying friction that 22K jewellery sometimes faces when sold outside Pakistan.

If you are buying a piece set with diamonds or precious stones, 18K is the international standard for stone-setting because it is harder than 22K and grips the stones more securely over years of wear. Most reputable diamond rings worldwide are 18K for this reason; a 22K diamond ring will hold its stones, but the prongs will need re-tightening more often.

If you're buying jewellery for someone who lives in the Gulf or expects to resell there, check what's locally favoured before defaulting to 22K. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar buy more 21K than 22K by volume, and resale values follow demand. A 21K piece can be the more sensible choice for a daughter moving to Dubai or a relative working in Riyadh.