What should I ask a web designer before hiring them in Pakistan?

Ownership comes first. Ask whose name and email the domain will be registered under, and who holds the hosting account. The right answer is you, with the designer given access. Many twin-city owners discover years later that their domain sits in a former freelancer's personal account, which turns a simple renewal into a hostage situation. Also ask whether you will receive the source files and every login if you part ways, and get that in writing, even in a WhatsApp message.

Next, ask how the site will be built. A designer using a purchased multipurpose theme with a page builder can produce something attractive quickly, but the result often loads slowly on a phone and needs constant plugin updates. That is not automatically wrong, but you should know. Ask to see two or three live sites they built, open them on your own phone on mobile data, and run them through Google's PageSpeed Insights. Then search for one of those businesses on Google to see whether the site actually appears.

Finally, ask about life after launch. Who changes your timings during Ramadan, adds a new doctor, renews the SSL certificate, and takes backups? Is that included, charged per edit, or not offered at all? What happens if the site is hacked? A designer who has clear answers here has done this before. For the record, our own sites, our Islamabad taxi service site and our Chiniot furniture showroom site, are live for you to check in exactly this way, and in the Business bundle the domain and accounts stay in your name.