PVARA chief eyes bigger global role

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Chairman and Minister of State Bilal Bin Saqib has said Pakistan wants to help shape the emerging rules of global finance as monetary systems become increasingly driven by software and blockchain.

According to a statement issued by PVARA on Saturday, Saqib presented Pakistan’s position at the Point Zero Forum 2026 in Zurich, a gathering of central bankers, regulators and financial sector leaders from around the world. He told the forum that the foundations of the financial system were being recast and said Pakistan intended to contribute to that process.

Addressing participants on the forum’s main stage, Saqib said automation and blockchain were changing how finance operates and argued that digital systems do not conform to national borders. He said this shift was challenging the traditional view that money remains solely under the authority of the state.

He said in a statement carried by PVARA: "We have always viewed money as something under the exclusive authority of the state. We have always understood money as something controlled solely by the state – one flag, one border, one currency. That era is now ending."

Saqib took part in a panel moderated by Central Banking Publications alongside South African Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Dr Mampho Modise. The discussion focused on where tokenised money is already being used, what is holding back wider adoption, and how regulators, banks and technology providers can build interoperability among central bank digital currencies, stablecoins and tokenised financial systems.

According to the PVARA statement, Saqib said that in countries where millions of people are already using digital assets, the issue is no longer whether such assets should be permitted, but whether states will retain sovereignty over them or leave that space to others.

"Pakistan is adopting a Pakistan-first strategy on digital assets. Our position is that developing economies must help define the principles of tokenised finance rather than passively inheriting frameworks created elsewhere. The countries that succeed will be those that can openly acknowledge reality: this has already happened, our people are already here," He said.

"Our responsibility is not to stop economic innovation, but to manage it better," her added.

Beyond the public sessions, Saqib also joined invitation-only meetings involving central bankers and financial leaders from Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, the Gulf and Europe, as well as major international banks and digital asset institutions. PVARA said those discussions centred on how developing economies could make use of dollar-denominated tokenised money without giving up monetary sovereignty, payment system control or visibility over financial flows.

Pakistan’s digital asset profile

The statement said Pakistan is among the world’s largest digital asset markets. Citing Chainalysis’ 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index, it said Pakistan ranked third worldwide in grassroots crypto adoption after India and the United States.

PVARA attributed that position to a young and mobile-first population, one of the world’s largest freelance economies, annual remittances exceeding $38 billion, and increasing use of stablecoins as a hedge against inflation. It said digital asset use in Pakistan grew before regulation was put in place and that the country is now framing regulations in response to an already active market.

About the forum and regulator

Now in its fifth year, the Point Zero Forum is an annual policy and technology event organised by the Global Finance and Technology Network and Switzerland’s State Secretariat for International Finance, in collaboration with the BIS Innovation Hub, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Swiss National Bank. The 2026 edition was held at Kongresshaus Zurich and, according to the statement, drew more than 2,000 central bankers, regulators, policymakers and industry leaders.

PVARA is the federal body responsible for licensing and supervising virtual asset service providers in Pakistan.