Pakistan may be amongst the top ten countries of the world in terms of purchasing military arms and ammunition. However, in the field of innovation and technology, it is far behind from the rest of the world. Even in cryptocurrencies’ adoption, Pakistan is lagging behind the world, while its traditional rival, India, has progressed a great deal in crypto space.
But it is better late than never. Pakistan too looks to be following this principle as it has decided to cryptocurrencies at Federal level.
The Government of Pakistan was found making a statement that it has established a Federal Committee. In addition, Government stated that the task assigned to newly formed committee is to prepare a comprehensive policy and regulation regarding crypto.
Pakistan is a federal state which is governed by a Constitution. The highest authority is the Prime Minister who acts on behalf of the Cabinet which is Federation. Under the federal structure then there are four provincial governments i.e. Sindh, Punjab, KPK and Balochistan which are all autonomous. Yet there are few territories under control and management by the Federal Government.
One of Pakistan’s Provincial Governments namely KPK has announced recently that it will house crypto mining farms. In addition, KPK Government further apprised that it is already working on establishing two mining farms, the work wherein is under progress. The Provincial Government told that the two mining farms will be powered by hydroelectric sources. The relevant Information Technology Minister of the Province said that the whole world has earned from crypto boom. However, Pakistan failed to seek exposure into this every-growing and thriving industry.
India, which is Pakistan’s neighbour country, as well as its traditional rival, is far ahead of Pakistan in crypto space. Lately the Indian crypto industry was under immense pressure which was caused by its Federal Government. It was rumoured in India that the Government will impose a nationwide ban on crypto trading. However, recently, the Federal Finance Minister of India has clarified in public gathering that there wouldn’t be any ban.
Pakistan’s adoption of cryptocurrencies has come very late when the value of Bitcoin has soared for several hundred percent.
Similarly, the Wall Street of the US kept itself away from cryptocurrency boom as it does not have confidence in crypto assets. However, the globally renowned investment bank, Morgan Stanley, which is a member of Wall Street, is aiming to benefit from crypto market. Although the bank has not issued any official announcement yet someone within the bank informed about bank’s crypto initiative. However, it was told that the bank’s crypto services would exclusively be for bank’s wealthiest customers only.
But as regards Pakistan the major hurdle is the country’s central bank i.e. State Bank of Pakistan. As far back as 2018, the central bank of Pakistan had circulated a notification in which it termed crypto trading as non-legal pursuit. In any case crypto trading is still going on in Pakistan right under the nose of State Bank of Pakistan.
