The Pakistani Government Will Ban Cryptocurrency Trading

The Pakistani Government will ban cryptocurrency trading and they want to obtain a court order to block the trading websites as well. The Government will be doing so as part of its efforts to fight fraud and money laundering so let’s read more today in our latest cryptocurrency news.

The Director-General of the FIA, Sanaullah Abbasi, met with the State Bank Pakistan Cyber Crime Circle Office to discuss the digital security issues and how they can work together in the future. As per the FIA chief, the SBP officials presented a mechanism to regulate crypto platforms. The SBP team informed the participants that the new regulations for crypto will be submitted under orders from the high court. The Law experts expressed their concerns over crypto and called them an insecure and fraudulent way to do business. Abbasi said that crypto gave a new dimension to fraud which is why they will connect legal experts to help with fraud issues that are arising from this technology.

The director-general of the FIA pointed out that crypto is legal in many countries but banned in some for valid reasons. He observed they are mainly concerned about fraud and money laundering aspects when deciding whether to allow the use of crypto platforms. The lack of laws to tackle crypto was raised in a few meetings and for example, there are no sections under the Remittance Act 1947, Prevention of the Electronic Crimes Act 2016, and Anti-Money laundering Act 2010. Only a few times, the action was taken by the Cyber Crime Wing under section 23- of FERA and AMLA and this is an act that the law enforcement agencies use against cybercriminals that were caught red-handed and broke into information systems to commit financial crimes like mortgage scams or stealing the funds form customers’ accounts at the ATMs which operate in these networks.

The Financial Action Task Forse will issue any regulators for Virtual Asset Service PRoviders and the lack of regulatory framework leaves a lot of questions unanswered including what steps VASP will have to take if caught doing illegal or inappropriate like terrorism financing. The Pakistani government and the Securities Commission said it will treat virtual currencies such as those to adopt a prohibited approach. The finance ministry published an advisory to avoid dealing with digital money, ICOs, and other crypto projects.

The FIA director also announced against those involving a scam where people were cheated and revealed data collection on possible suspects to ensure no more victims.