Islamabad:
The federal government and the central bank repeated on Thursday that the use of cryptocurrencies was illegal and that anyone dealing with these currencies could be investigated by the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
The statements were made by federal financial secretary Imdad Ullah Bosal and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) CEO Sohail Jawad during a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee for Finance Committee.
The development also came a day after the newly appointed special assistant to Prime Minister at Crypto and Blockchain, Bilal Bin Saqib, made a pitch to promote cryptocurrencies during his visit to the United States.
Crypto is not a legal currency in Pakistan, Bosal said. He recommended that the committee invited Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) to further orientation. SAPM Bilal bin Saqib is also CEO of PCC.
“Working with the cryptocurrencies is at a very, very preliminary stage, and every time the government decides to take it further, we would recommend first to have a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework for it,” Bosal said, adding that so far there was no such framework.
As he sat in the committee, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Sharmila Faruqi raised the question of the conflicting political statements of the government with regard to the promotion of Cryptocurrencies in Pakistan.
“There seems to be no legal framework for cryptocurrencies despite the fact that Pakistan has recently come out of the economic action group [FATF] Gray list, ”she said.
In response, Jawad hoped that PCC would involve other stakeholders to agree on a robust legal and regulatory framework.
While the Finance Secretary told the National Assembly Committee that the use of Cryptocurrencies was illegal in Pakistan, his ministry promoted these new currencies through another set of messages, at least two of them came out this week.
Jawad, the SBP director, said the central bank in 2018 had issued instructions to its regulated units. “According to these instructions, which are still valid, the trade and storage of the cryptocurrencies are illegal, and these units are intended to report such cases to FMU for continuous examination of the FIA,” he said.
Earlier in the day, a statement of the Ministry of Finance quoted Bilal Bin Saqib as saying that the government in Pakistan has awarded 2,000 megawatt excess electricity in phase 1 to Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.
Bilal bin Saqib also declared that this would open doors to superb miners, tech companies and pure energy partners around the world. To exploit this momentum, Saqib also leads the creation of Pakistan Digital Assets Authority (PDAA), it added.
PDAA would be a regulatory body designed to strengthen builders, protect investors and formalize digital financial frames for the future, according to the ministry. However, the committee’s procedure revealed a gap between Pakistan’s legal framework and the country’s ambitions to go to promote digital currencies.
The SBP director said there was only one country in the world that declared crypto as a legal bid, but it had also decided to withdraw the decision. He said there were various forms of digital currencies, including Bitcoins, stable coins, other coins and non-fun symbols, and all these classes would require a separate set of rules.
Even if the cryptocurrencies are banned as legal bids, it is still used to send money abroad, including to buy used cars from Japan, said MNA Usama Mela of the Pakistani Tehreek-In-Insaf (PTI). There is an impression that the government itself would my coins by using 2000 megawatts of recently awarded electricity, he added.
The committee also asked about the legal support of the Council, which the Financial Secretary said that the Council so far worked under the Prime Minister’s executive orders, but the government planned to bring a law to give it the legal coverage.
The way the cryptocurrencies are promoted in the media by the government, the people have begun to invest in the one that also created an increase in prices, said Mirza Ikhtiar Baig of PPP.
The Ministry of Finance said in his press release that Bilal Bin Saqib was talking in front of an elite audience that included US Vice President JD Vance, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, on Bitcoin Vegas 2025. Delivery of a keynote speaker, he revealed the country’s first government -led Stratech -stratech -Bitcoin reserve – The Global Map, Finance.
“Pakistan is no longer defined by his past. It is reborn as a forward hub for digital innovation – driven by his youth, sharpened by necessity and led by a new generation of tech statesmen,” Bilal said.
“I’m not just here as a minister,” he continued, “I’m here as a generation voice-a generation that is online, on-chain and unstoppable.”
Bilal announced the creation of a national Bitcoin-Watching Book that already had digital assets in state custody, not for sale or speculation, but as a superb reserve signalizes long-term belief in decentralized funding. He also thanked President Donald Trump for his role as a peace champion in the recent conflict in India-Pakistan and for his commitment to crypto recording.
