Senator Criticizes Government for Blocking Pro-Crypto and Digital Assets Bill

Senator Criticizes Government for Blocking Pro-Crypto and Digital Assets Bill

Senator Afnan Ullah, on Monday, expressed his frustration at being blocked from making the Virtual Assets Bill 2025 and criticised the government for preventing his bill.

“I spent months drafting this bill, and now I’m barred from presenting it,” protested a senator at an gathering with the Senate Standing Committee on IT & Telecom today.

He criticised his Ministry of IT and Telecom (MoITT) and said it was undermining private member initiatives, and delaying his efforts. He promised to introduce a privilege motion on the matter.

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The bill was defeated in the Upper House Session on Monday. The goal of the bill titled Virtual Assets Bill 2025 is to govern the issuance, usage of, trading and use of virtual assets in Pakistan as well as including the introduction of the Digital Rupee backed by the PKR as well as other matters.

The issue surrounding the stalled Personal Data Protection Bill was addressed in the committee. IT Ministry officials disclosed that consultations with stakeholders remain in progress.

The Member Legal (MoITT) stated that the cabinet in the federal government had has approved this bill for 2022 and it is now scheduled to be approved in principle again.

The committee voted to organize a public hearing about the Personal Data Protection Bill. The committee also considered suggestions to combine senator Afnan Ullah’s bill and the version of the government to speed up the process.

Throughout the entire session in the Senate, Senator Afnanullah was critical of his Ministry of IT in the session for their insanity, declaring that his personal data was stolen, and accused the Ministry for delegating its duties to other agencies.