Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has established a specialized cryptocurrency investigation unit within its National Command and Control Centre (NC3). This move signifies a crucial step in the country’s strategy to formalize its digital asset sector while simultaneously building an enforcement arm to combat illicit activities like money laundering and terrorism financing.
The unit’s primary mandate is to investigate crimes involving virtual currencies. Its creation aligns with Pakistan’s broader push to embrace digital assets, which includes lifting an eight-year crypto banking ban and establishing the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA). The FIA unit is designed to complement PVARA’s regulatory functions by providing dedicated enforcement capabilities.
According to the agency’s counter-terrorism chief, Dr. Muhammad Athar Waheed, the unit will focus on the criminal use of crypto. He has also urged other agencies, such as the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency and the Anti-Narcotics Force, to develop similar units to counter crypto’s role in cybercrime and the drug trade. New rules are reportedly being drafted to ensure inquiries are concluded within fixed timeframes.
The NC3 center consolidates the FIA’s financial crime-fighting tools onto a single platform. This includes desks for anti-money laundering and virtual currency investigations, an Interpol coordination point, and units dedicated to open-source intelligence, cyber patrolling, and dark web investigation.
Pakistan has been actively pursuing the formalization of its digital asset sector, ranking third in the Chainalysis 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index. Recent steps include lifting a long-standing crypto banking ban and advancing licenses for crypto exchanges. The government has also explored tokenizing state assets and engaged with an affiliate of World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture linked to the Trump family, to explore using its stablecoin for cross-border payments.
However, Pakistan’s engagement with cryptocurrency faces challenges. In June, the influential Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi seminary issued a ruling, or fatwa, stating that cryptocurrency is not considered “wealth” under Islamic law and therefore not a valid means of payment. This religious interpretation casts doubt on the government’s plans for widespread crypto adoption.
In response to the fatwa, PVARA chairman Bilal bin Saqib has reportedly asked the seminary to differentiate between purely speculative tokens and asset-backed instruments like fully reserved stablecoins and blockchain-recorded sukuk. He told Reuters that Pakistan could potentially “lead the world in Shariah-compliant digital finance.”
The FIA’s new cryptocurrency investigation unit provides Islamabad with an enforcement mechanism to support its regulatory ambitions. Nevertheless, the question of whether cryptocurrency is permissible at all, in the eyes of the country’s religious scholars, remains unresolved, highlighting a key uncertainty in Pakistan’s digital asset landscape.
Why This Matters
The materials describe a narrow update: The FIA has created a specialized unit within its National Command and Control Centre (NC3) to investigate crimes involving virtual currencies, focusing on money laundering and terrorism financing. Whether crypto is permissible at all in the eyes of the country’s religious scholars.
Broader Context
Source materials place the factual news in this context: Pakistan’s top federal investigators have set up a dedicated unit to police crypto-linked crime, building out the enforcement side of a national drive to embrace digital assets.
Leave a Reply