The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the Finance Ministry to provide suggestions on the legal status of cryptocurrency in Pakistan within two months.
The brief verdict was issued at a hearing on a plea to legalize cryptocurrencies in Pakistan. The justices considering the petition were also irritated by the recently provided by the Finance Ministry.
During the hearing, the bench scolded the Finance Ministry’s lawyer for presenting a poorly written report despite being granted three months to do so.
According to the lawyer, the Ministry has already convened two discussions with the key players in this respect.
The lawyer went on to say that legalizing cryptocurrency in the country is a hard problem that would take time to resolve.
The bench questioned the counsel, noting that the Finance Ministry is dragging its feet on a minor matter unnecessarily.
While adjourning the case until June 13, the bench directed the lawyer to ensure that the Finance Ministry makes proposals on cryptocurrency legalization in the country at the next hearing.
It should be noted that, while attending the inaugural Pakistan Blockchain Summit 2022 earlier this year in January, former Science and Technology Minister Shibli Faraz revealed that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), and Finance Division intend to and are working to legalize cryptocurrency.
Formerly, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has formed a cryptocurrency committee that will decide whether or not to block crypto websites.
According to Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) well-informed sources, the Division concerned is unable to issue an advisory on the blocking of cryptocurrency websites.
They added that the issue of cryptocurrency websites is likely to be brought before this committee, and that the committee will decide the fate of these websites in due course.
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