ISLAMABAD:
The federal government and the central bank reiterated on Thursday that the use of crypto currencies was illegal and anyone dealing in these currencies was liable to be investigated by the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
The statements were made by Federal Finance Secretary Imdad Ullah Bosal and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Executive Director Sohail Jawad during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance.
The development also came a day after the newly appointed Special Assistant to Prime Minister on crypto and blockchain, Bilal Bin Saqib, made a pitch for the promotion of cryptocurrencies during his visit to the United States.
Crypto is not a legal currency in Pakistan, said Bosal. He recommended that the committee invite the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) for further briefing. SAPM Bilal Bin Saqib is also the chief executive officer of the PCC.
“The work on the crypto currencies is at a very, very preliminary stage and whenever the government decides to take it further, we would recommend to first have a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework for it,” Bosal said, adding that so far, there was no such framework.
Sitting on the committee, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Sharmila Faruqi raised the issue of the contradictory policy statements by the government with regard to the promotion of cryptocurrencies in Pakistan.
“There seems to be no legal framework for the cryptocurrencies despite the fact that Pakistan has recently come out of the Financial Action Task Force [FATF] grey list,” she said.
In reply, Jawad hoped that the PCC would involve other stakeholders to agree on a robust legal and regulatory framework.
Whereas the finance secretary was telling the National Assembly committee that the use of cryptocurrencies was illegal in Pakistan, his ministry was promoting these new currencies through a different set of announcements, at least two of them coming out this week.
Jawad, the SBP executive director, said that in 2018, the central bank had issued instructions to its regulated entities. “Under these instructions that are still valid, the trading and holding of the crypto currencies is illegal, and these entities are bound to report such cases to the FMU for ongoing investigation by the FIA”, he said.
Earlier in the day, a finance ministry statement quoted Bilal Bin Saqib as saying that the government of Pakistan has allocated 2,000 megawatts of surplus electricity in Phase 1 for Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.
Bilal Bin Saqib further stated that this would open doors to sovereign miners, tech firms, and clean energy partners worldwide. To harness this momentum, Saqib is also leading the creation of the Pakistan Digital Assets Authority (PDAA), it added.
The PDAA would be a regulatory body designed to empower builders, protect investors, and formalise digital finance frameworks for the future, according to the ministry. However, the committee proceedings revealed a gulf between Pakistan’s legal framework and the country’s ambitions to go on the path to promoting digital currencies.
The SBP executive director said that there was only one country in the world that declared crypto as legal tender but it too had decided to withdraw the decision. He stated that there were different forms of digital currencies, including bitcoins, stable coins, other coins and non-fungible tokens and all these classes would require a separate set of regulations.
Even if the crypto currencies are banned as legal tenders, it is still being used for sending money overseas, including for buying used cars from Japan, said MNA Usama Mela of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). There is an impression that the government itself was going to mine coins by using the 2000 megawatts of recently allocated electricity, he added.
The committee also inquired about the legal backing of the council to which the finance secretary said that so far, the council was working under the executive orders of the prime minister but the government was planning to bring a law to give it the legal cover.
The way the crypto currencies are promoted in the media by the government, the people have started heavily investing in it that also caused a rise in the prices, said Mirza Ikhtiar Baig of the PPP.
The Finance Ministry said in its press release that Bilal Bin Saqib spoke in front of an elite audience that included the US Vice President JD Vance, Eric Trump, and Donald Trump Jr, at the Bitcoin Vegas 2025. Delivering a keynote speech, he unveiled the country’s first government-led Strategic Bitcoin Reserve – and with it, a radically new vision of Pakistan on the global map, the Finance Ministry added.
“Pakistan is no longer defined by its past. It is being reborn as a forward-looking hub of digital innovation – powered by its youth, sharpened by necessity, and led by a new generation of tech statesmen,” Bilal stated.
“I’m not just here as a minister,” he continued, “I’m here as the voice of a generation — a generation that is online, on-chain, and unstoppable.”
Bilal announced the establishment of a national Bitcoin wallet, holding digital assets already in state custody, not for sale or speculation, but as a sovereign reserve signaling long-term belief in decentralised finance. He also thanked President Donald Trump for his role as a peacemaker in the recent India-Pakistan conflict and for his commitment to crypto adoption.
