ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) and Minister of State, Bilal Bin Saqib, on Thursday urged the industrial sector to deepen its investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, and blockchain, saying these technologies are interconnected pillars of a technology-driven economy.
He also announced the establishment of a formal consultative group on the virtual assets regulatory framework. Bilal Bin Saqib said this in a briefing, which brought together founders, chief executives, technologists, and financial innovators from Pakistan’s digital assets Sector.
The PVARA chairman spoke about Pakistan’s digital assets market within a larger economic vision. “Pakistan receives USD38.3 billion in remittances every year and has over 100 million adults outside the formal financial system. Virtual assets are not a peripheral technology story. They are infrastructure. Pakistan has made its choice, and PVARA is here to set the foundation for that infrastructure by providing the legal certainty, the licensing architecture, and the guardrails that make this market trustworthy for investors and safe for the public.”
PVARA, he said, intends to be a working partner to the industry, not a distant regulator.
The centrepiece announcement of the session was the establishment of a formal industry consultative group under PVARA. The group will bring together leading practitioners to work alongside the Authority on the development of Pakistan’s virtual asset regulatory framework, ensuring that policy is built with market knowledge, not in isolation from it. The Chairman described this as a structural commitment to sustained, two-way engagement between the regulator and the industry it serves.
Participants acknowledged the pace of PVARA’s institutional development, noting that a fully operational, independent regulatory authority had been established, legislatively grounded, and opened for business within nine months. Pakistan’s digital assets market is moving into a new era, with a credible regulator, a clear legal framework, and an industry that is ready to build. The work PVARA has done in nine months has given that transition a foundation it can stand on.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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