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The Central Bank of Pakistan is all set to completely ban cryptocurrency. The “High Court of Sindh” is the highest judicial institution in Pakistan and it is located in the province of Sindh.
On January 07, 2022 – cnbctv18 published, “Within a period of six months, 1,064 Pakistani nationals have bought cryptocurrencies worth $5 crore, ANI has reported quoting the country’s vernacular media. Pakistan does not have regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. So, the Federal Investigation Agency is looking for investors and funders and has frozen 1,054 accounts. In 2020-21, Pakistan saw a 711 percent increase in cryptocurrency value at around $20 billion.”
After India and Vietnam, Pakistan ranks third in the Global Crypto Adoption Index in 2020-21.
Reportedly, the “Central Bank of Pakistan” has requested the “High Court of Sindh” to ban all kinds of “unauthorized options” of crypto exchanges.
Thus, it just looks like Pakistan might permit “authorized transactions” of cryptocurrencies as they have made a special mention of the word “unauthorized.”
The interministerial committee has “RECOMMENDED” banning cryptocurrencies and all related activities.
The focus of the Interministerial Committee is to promote Creative Economy. The high-level interministerial committee has been formed to come up with recommendations on whether it is healthy to permit cryptocurrency transactions under Pakistani law.
These recommendations have been submitted to the Sindh High Court on January 12, 2022 – Wednesday.
The committee has been constituted by the Sindh High Court under the supervision of the deputy governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) along with officials from the Pakistani Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Information Technology, Telecommunication Authority, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sima Kamil, Deputy Governor of SBP submitted a 38-page report, wherein he has required a complete ban of all cryptocurrencies and related activities in Pakistan. The committee has required that cryptocurrencies should be declared illegal. They claim that they have done a lot of research before emphasizing this. The report claims that the benefits facilitated by the cryptocurrency far outweighs the benefits it provides for Pakistan.
The committee has required the court to impose fines for cryptocurrency usage.
The Sindh High Court has directed the committee to send a copy of the report to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Law to decide on whether any kind of cryptocurrency will be permitted in Pakistan.
The court has directed the two ministries to jointly recommend whether crypto business of any kind can be legally carried out in the country. They are required to submit a report of their decision on April 11.
It is very obvious that Pakistan is very keen about coming up with a regulatory framework to channelize the virtual assets accumulated by its citizens, which has a high potential to create a circular economy.
If Pakistan would favour cryptocurrencies, they will manage to attract investors; however, if they do not investors would choose to move to other countries that accept them.
