PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Friday allowed two-month time to the federal government for legislating on cryptocurrency and other digital currency trading in the country.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal directed the federal government to submit a progress report on the matter after the said period.

The bench issued the order in a petition challenging the cryptocurrency and other digital currency trading in the country.

A deputy attorney general Bilal Durrani informed the bench that the government had already been legislating on the matter.

Petitioner terms such a trading as illegal

He requested for a month’s time for making the said enactment by the government.

The petition is filed by Barrister Huzaifa Ahmad, who requested the court to declare as illegal and against a notification of State Bank of Pakistan the trading in cryptocurrency in the country.

The petitioner sought directives of the court for respondents including federal and provincial governments to impose a complete ban on cryptocurrency and digital foreign exchange trading till there was a law governing it; to monitor and draft a policy pertaining to those bank accounts through which funding in crypto and digital foreign exchange trading was done and to take strict legal action against those companies, individuals and training academies that promoted and advertised such services.

The petitioner also prayed the court to direct the government for legislating on the matter dealing with the prime issues of tax evasion, money laundering, financing prohibited activities, issue of registration, and penalising individuals involved therein.

The respondents in the petition are federal government through finance secretary, federal law secretary, Federal Investigation Agency director general, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority chairman, Federal Board of Revenue through its Peshawar’s chief commissioner, State Bank of Pakistan governor, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan director, and secretaries of KP finance and law departments.

Barrister Huzaifa stated that in recent years the concept of digital currency was introduced wherein the users of such currency would carry it in digital form having online digital wallets.

He stated that such currencies or wallets were not regulated.

He argued that State Bank of Pakistan through a public notification had declared it illegal.

The petitioner stated that despite the fact that cryptocurrency was declared illegal by SBP, there were numerous individuals working on different digital platforms, dealing and engaging in such a trade.

He stated that those individuals were operating in Pakistan online through internet and different android and IOS applications.

He added that such trading applications empowered their users to invest in crypto trading.

He added that individuals through the applications were using digital currency including Bitcoin, Ethereum and various other cryptocurrencies, and were trading online through different websites and applications, referred to as “digital forex trading”.

He said such websites and phone applications acted as a digital forex market wherein the user bought and sold stocks, international currency and digital currency.

The petitioner stated that operators and traders had digital wallets where they stored, withdrew, deposited and held their funds, either in the form of international or digital currency.

He said those accounts were neither regulated by SBP nor were they registered anywhere in the country.

The petitioner stated that he had sent letters to the relevant authorities including provincial administration, FIA and SECP, but none of them took any action against the illegality.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2025