Pakistan Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Chairman Bilal Bin Saqib said on Thursday that a Shariah advisory board was being established for digital and virtual assets and guidance would be sought from the board on transactions involving digital and virtual assets.

The PVARA chairman appeared before the media for the first time after working on the initiative in Pakistan for several months. He responded to a variety of questions during an almost two-hour interaction at his newly established office here, with the entire PVARA team also present.

Addressing a question about a fatwa against crypto, he said that India had slapped a 30 per cent tax on crypto, but Pakistan moved from banned to legalised status for digital currency in a very short span of time. He noted that Pakistan has a customer base of 40 million with investments totaling $250 billion, adding that the country is also considering the tokenization of debt and Roshan Digital Accounts (RDA).

Highlighting international cooperation, Bilal Bin Saqib stated that PVARA is in close contact with global jurisdictions and is negotiating Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with countries like Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. He concluded that while challenges regarding anti-money laundering and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) compliance remain, Pakistan successfully made PVARA fully functional in roughly six months.