KARACHI: PayPal, the American company that operates a global online payment system has refused to extend its services to Pakistan for at least three years, citing a lack of adequate business opportunities, local media reported on Saturday.
As of this year, PayPal operates in 202 markets and has over 286 million active, registered accounts. The company allows customers to send, receive and hold money in multiple currencies.
Last month, a Pakistani delegation from the Ministry of Information Technology traveled to the US to convince PayPal to begin operations in Pakistan. But PayPal officials refused, and said Pakistan was not included in the company’s three-year road map due to inadequate business opportunities, Urdu News reported.
The Elon Musk-founded company, has also previously refused to begin operations in Pakistan, despite the country trying to secure facilitation for its 200,000 freelancers and over 7,000 registered small and medium enterprises (SME’s) in recent years.
The global online payment industry is pegged to grow ten-fold to $500 billion by 2020. Meanwhile, Pakistan expects an expansion of its electronic payments, which represent a potential market of $36 billion by 2025, as the country migrates from a cash based economy to an electronic payment system.
But IT experts believe that PayPal’s refusal to operate in Pakistan is not related to the lack of business opportunities in the country, but to its grey-listing by the Paris-based terror financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
“Huge business opportunities do exist in Pakistan. I think this is the issue of FATF and not volumes, because PayPal operates even in much smaller countries as compared to Pakistan,” Hamza Matin, an IT expert and former President of Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA), told Arab News.
“PayPal operates with banks and unless the confidence in the banking system is restored, they will not come to Pakistan. They fear money laundering,” he said.
FATF has given Pakistan until February 2020 to implement an action plan to get off its grey list or risk further downgrading to the blacklist which will have severe consequences for the country’s financial and banking system.
In February this year, Asad Umar, then finance minister, said the government was committed to bringing Paypal to Pakistan, and said: “We are chasing PayPal for the breakthrough.”
PayPal not yet ready to extend services to Pakistan
PayPal not yet ready to extend services to Pakistan
- The online payment company has cited a lack of business opportunities behind its decision
- IT experts in Pakistan believe PayPal is concerned about Pakistan’s grey-listing by the Financial Action Task Force
Pakistan’s Balochistan establishes threat assessment center amid surge in militant attacks
- Provincial Intelligence Fusion and Threat Assessment Center brings police, CTD, intelligence agencies together on one platform, says official
- Says center helps disrupt terror financing, narcotics trafficking, organized crime and enables action against unregulated communication networks
ISLAMABAD: The government in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province has established a state-of-the-art threat assessment center to strengthen early warning and prevention against “terrorism” incidents, a senior official said on Monday amid a surge in militant attacks recently.
Balochistan Additional Chief Secretary Hamza Shafqaat wrote on social media platform X that the Provincial Intelligence Fusion and Threat Assessment Center (PIFTAC Balochistan) brings police, the counter-terrorism department (CTD), intelligence agencies and civil administration together on one platform for real-time information sharing and joint analysis.
“PIFTAC strengthens early warning and prevention against terrorism, helps disrupt terror financing, narcotics trafficking, and organized crime, and enables coordinated action against illegal spectrum and unregulated communication networks,” he wrote.
“Information that was once scattered is now shared and acted upon in time, allowing the state to move from reacting after incidents to preventing them before they occur.”
https://x.com/beyondfiles/status/2010444397163532547
The development takes place amid a steep rise in combat-related deaths in Pakistan during 2025. According to statistics released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) last month, combat-related deaths in 2025 rose 73 percent to 3,387.
These deaths included 2,115 militants, 664 security forces personnel, 580 civilians and 28 members of pro-government peace committees, the local think tank said.
Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry last week highlighted Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts in 2025, saying that security forces had conducted 75,175 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) and killed 2,597 militants last year. He also said Pakistan reported 5,397 “terrorism incidents” last year.
Pakistan frequently accuses Afghanistan of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) to operate from its soil, charges Kabul has repeatedly denied.
Islamabad also accuses India of backing these militant groups against Pakistan. New Delhi rejects the allegations.
