Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) chairman Bilal bin Saqib has called for continued dialogue on the treatment of digital assets under Islamic law after meeting with eminent scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani, who supported the ruling banning purchases made using cryptocurrencies.

In Saturday’s post Saqib he said the discussion covered blockchain technology, digital assets, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), as well as the need to protect Pakistanis from fraud, exploitation and financial harm.

Saqib said different categories of digital assets require “thorough technical assessment coupled with rigorous Shariah analysis, rather than looking through a single lens.”

The exchange highlights the tension between Pakistan’s desire to build a regulated cryptocurrency market and religious objections that could shape public acceptance. Religious views can be significant in Pakistan, where approximately 231.7 million people, or 96.35% of the population, identified as a Muslim in the 2023 census.

Pakistan’s Crypto Framework Meets Religious Control

According to on Friday for a Pakistani newspaper, Dawn Usmani and five other scholars signed an Islamic legal ruling issued by the prominent Islamic seminary Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi.

The ruling reportedly said that purchases made using cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins such as USDT, are not permitted because digital tokens do not qualify as recognized property or wealth under their interpretation of Islamic law.

Saqib did not directly dispute this claim. Instead, he called on researchers, regulators and industry participants to continue the discussion on the distinctions between categories of digital assets.

“I said that blockchain, digital assets, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets represent a broad spectrum of technologies and use cases,” he said.

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The discussion comes as Pakistan moves away from years of restrictions towards a licensed virtual assets sector. On April 15, the State Bank of Pakistan allowed banks to open accounts for PVARA-licensed virtual asset service providers (VASPs), ending an eight-year restriction on regulated cryptocurrency institutions.

The move comes after the Pakistan Virtual Assets Act, 2026 was passed in March, which made PVARA the statutory body responsible for licensing and supervising virtual asset activities.

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