Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, revealed on Thursday that PayPal is not coming to Pakistan.

The government is still in touch with PayPal and is looking for other alternatives, said the minister while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication. The committee meeting was chaired by Rubina Khalid on Thursday.

Secretary IT, Maroof Afzal, said that PayPal’s internal issues were the reason behind the company’s refusal to Pakistan. He said that security and anti-money laundering related laws have been tightened and there is no issue on Pakistan’s part now.

Senator Mohammad Ateeq Sheikh said that the company is not coming to Pakistan due to lack of legal backing.

He further said that PayPal is operating worldwide, and a Pakistani director who is working in the company wants to bring it to Pakistan. However, fearing money laundering in the system in Pakistan, the company has refused to come to Pakistan.

He proposed that the government should provide a sovereign guarantee to PayPal and ask them to come via a Public Private Partnership to remove their apprehensions.

The committee observed that due to lack of an online money transfer system, the country is losing huge foreign exchange reserves.

It’s also holding back the freelance sector which needs a payment gateway to flourish.

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