Shariah | Pakistan

Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Chairman Bilal bin Saqib on Saturday said he held a “constructive discussion” with religious scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani on the Shariah status of digital assets. Their meeting comes after it surfaced that Mufti Usmani and six others had declared purchasing goods with cryptocurrency “impermissible” in a fatwa (religious decree) issued on June 10. It described cryptocurrency as “merely the recording of fictitious numbers in an account”. Subsequently, Saqib — who has been leading Pakistan’s efforts to adopt cryptocurrency since early 2025 — posted on X: “Today, I had a constructive discussion with Mufti Taqi Usmani sahib on digital assets and the ongoing conversation around their Shariah status.” “We are united on one fundamental objective: protecting Pakistanis from fraud, exploitation, and financial harm.” The crypto czar said he shared with Mufti Usmani that “blockchain, digital assets, stablecoins, and tokenised real-world assets represent a broad spectrum o...