��������

KARACHI/SINGAPORE: Pakistan’s central bank is preparing to launch a pilot for a digital currency and is finalizing legislation to regulate virtual assets, Governor Jameel Ahmad said on Wednesday, as the country ramps up efforts to modernize its financial system.

Central banks globally are exploring the use of digital currencies as interest in blockchain-based payments grows. Pakistan’s move follows similar steps by regulators in China, India, Nigeria and several Gulf states to test or issue digital currencies through controlled pilot programs.

Speaking at the Reuters NEXT Asia summit in Singapore, Ahmad said Pakistan was “building up our capacity on the central bank digital currency” and hoped to roll out a pilot soon.

He was speaking on a panel alongside Sri Lanka’s central bank governor, P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, with both discussing monetary policy challenges in South Asia.

Ahmad added that a new law would “lay down the foundations for the licensing and regulation” of the virtual assets sector and that the central bank was already in touch with some tech partners.

The move builds on efforts by the government-backed Pakistan Crypto Council, set up in March to drive virtual asset adoption. The PCC is exploring bitcoin mining using surplus energy, has appointed Binance founder Changpeng Zhao as a strategic adviser and plans to establish a state-run bitcoin reserve.

It has also held talks with US-based crypto firms, including the Trump-linked World Liberty Financial.

In May, the State Bank of Pakistan clarified that virtual assets were not illegal. However, it advised financial institutions not to engage with them until a formal licensing framework was in place.

“There are risks associated, and at the same time, there are opportunities in this new emerging field. So we have to evaluate and manage the risk very carefully, and at the same time not allow to let go the opportunity,” he said on the panel.

TIGHT GRIP, FALLING RATES

On the monetary policy front, Ahmad said the central bank would continue to maintain a tight policy stance to stabilize inflation within its 5–7 percent medium-term target.

Pakistan has cut its benchmark rate from a peak of 22 percent to 11 percent over the past year, as inflation fell sharply from 38 percent in May 2023 to 3.2 percent in June, averaging 4.5 percent in the 2025 fiscal year just ended, a nine-year low.

“We are now seeing the results of this tight monetary policy transfer, both on our inflation as well as on the external account,” he said.

Ahmad also said Pakistan was not overly exposed to dollar weakness, noting that the country’s foreign debt was mostly dollar-denominated and only 13 percent comprised Eurobonds or commercial loans.

“We don’t see any major impact,” he said, adding that reserves had risen to $14.5 billion from under $3 billion two years ago.

Ahmad said Pakistan’s current three-year $7 billion IMF program, which runs through September 2027, was on track and had already resulted in reforms in fiscal policy, energy pricing and the foreign exchange market.

“We are confident that after that (IMF program), maybe we will not require an immediate (follow-up).”

Pakistan’s central bank governor was asked during the panel whether Pakistan had financing plans lined up for upcoming military equipment purchases, particularly imports from China.

He responded that he was not aware of such plans, and said the central bank’s mandate remained ensuring smooth interbank market functioning and maintaining ample foreign exchange “so that there is no problem as far as trade financing is concerned.”

KARACHI: Pakistan will launch a targeted five-day polio vaccination campaign next week, aiming to immunize more than 158,000 children in high-risk districts of the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, health authorities said on Wednesday.

The campaign will be conducted exclusively in the Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan and the Upper Kohistan, Lower Kohistan, and Kolai-Palas districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC), which oversees Pakistan’s polio eradication efforts.

“Special focus and effective strategies are being applied in high-risk union councils,” the NEOC said in a statement, referring to administrative units where access and vaccine acceptance remain challenging. 

The drive will take place from July 14 to 18.

Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that primarily affects young children and can cause permanent paralysis. There is no cure, but it can be prevented through multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and a complete routine immunization schedule, experts say.

Pakistan, one of only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic, the other being neighboring Afghanistan, has made significant gains in recent decades. Annual cases have fallen dramatically from an estimated 20,000 in the early 1990s to single digits by 2018.

However, the country has witnessed a worrying resurgence recently. As of July 2025, Pakistan has reported 14 polio cases, including eight in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four in Sindh, and one each in Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan, according to official data. The country reported 74 cases in 2024, raising alarms among health officials and global partners supporting the eradication campaign.

In contrast, only six cases were recorded in 2023 and just one in 2021. 

The latest targeted drive follows smaller vaccination efforts in high-risk areas. A special campaign was conducted last month in six union councils of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district, where approximately 17,500 children were vaccinated. A similar operation is planned for 11 union councils in North Waziristan, another district with a history of polio transmission.

The government conducted three nationwide polio campaigns earlier this year, in February, April, and May, aiming to reach around 45 million children with the help of over 400,000 frontline workers, including 225,000 women vaccinators.

Despite decades of effort, Pakistan’s eradication drive has faced persistent challenges, including misinformation about vaccines and resistance from conservative religious and militant groups who view immunization campaigns with suspicion. Some clerics have claimed the vaccines are a Western conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children or part of intelligence operations.

Vaccination teams and police providing security have also been targeted in militant attacks, particularly in remote and conflict-affected areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. These threats have at times forced the suspension of campaigns and restricted access to vulnerable populations.

Pakistan launched its national polio eradication program in 1994.