A meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance was held under the chairmanship of Senator Saleem Mandviwala at Parliament House today, where it was informed that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Ministry of IT & Telecom have started work to ban the use of cryptocurrencies in the country.
The committee directed authorities to block cryptocurrency services and websites dealing with the instrument in Pakistan.
Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha informed the committee that cryptocurrencies will never be legalized in Pakistan. She said the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had imposed strict conditions on the usability and viability of cryptocurrencies, therefore this medium of exchange will not be allowed in Pakistan.
The Senate Committee was briefed that the global crypto market cap had shrunk from $2.8 trillion to $1.2 trillion.
Committee chairman Salim Mandviwala claimed Pakistanis had invested billions of dollars in the contentious financial instrument.
The committee was informed that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Federal Board of Revenue’s Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) were monitoring Pakistani investments in cryptocurrencies on a regular basis and that an investigation was currently underway.
Shedding more light on the subject, the central bank’s Director Payment Systems Department Sohail Javaad claimed over 16,000 types of different cryptocurrencies had been created so far.
Other SBP officials informed the Senate panel that cryptocurrencies are a high-risk investment. Officials called the exchange medium a “total fraud” and said it would never be legalized in Pakistan.
Following extensive deliberations on the issue, the standing committee directed authorities to prohibit the use of cryptocurrencies in Pakistan.
The world of cryptocurrencies has been rocked by a number of regulatory interventions in Pakistan in the last few years, as local authorities once again appear to be intensifying their crackdown on illicit sources of financing.
It is noteworthy that SBP has been conducting internal studies on cryptocurrencies as part of its future monetary strategies in the country.
However, despite hopes of a regulatory shift towards adopting digital assets as legal tender last year, the situation is now incredibly uncertain to determine whether or not the country will see digital assets regularized at all.
