During the last two months of the three months given by the Sindh High Court, the government committee for the drafting of rules on cryptocurrency met twice without making any progress (SHC).
The court ordered the government to regulate cryptocurrencies within three months, after consulting with all stakeholders, including the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), and the Ministries of Law and Information Technology and Telecommunication (ITT).
It also mandated the formation of a committee and instructed it to make recommendations.
All of the government’s attempts have failed to address the growing threat of unregulated cryptocurrencies in Pakistan, which are tightening their hold on potential investment streams without adhering to any laws of the land.
Popular exchanges including as Binance and OKEx operate their services in Pakistan digitally, with no headquarters, offices, or other physical presence. Due to the lack of a proper legal framework for
regularized cryptocurrency in the country, they are earning millions of dollars without breaking any laws or paying a single penny to the national exchequer.
After the SBP declared cryptocurrencies illegal in April 2018, no one, including the central bank and the SECP, kept track of the activities of crypto businesses that were luring millions of potential investors out of the country.
According to web analytics company SimilarWeb, apps like Binance and Binomo have more downloads than some of the country’s top banks’ apps.
To that end, the Pakistani government should launch media campaigns to raise public knowledge about these crypto enterprises, as less well-known online platforms have committed fraud in the past and are unregulated in Pakistan.
Most major and developing countries have approved cryptocurrencies as real-value assets, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, Spain, El Salvador, and Australia.
To read our latest blog on Govt. of Pakistan has no plans to legalize Cryptocurrency by Fawad Chaudhry, click here.
