DAWN Editorials - 1st June 2025

[adminforum]

Crypto fever

THE government must check its enthusiasm. The speed with which it is moving on cryptocurrency adoption has created a sharp disconnect between existing state-level policies on crypto assets and recent plans unveiled by the Pakistan Crypto Council, under which the country not only intends to create its own ‘strategic reserve’ of cryptocurrency, but also to allocate two gigawatts of electricity to AI and cryptocurrency businesses. The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue was last Thursday informed that, regardless of whatever Pakistan’s new ‘crypto czar’ may have announced with respect to the aforementioned plans just a day earlier at a high-powered forum in Las Vegas, bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies remain banned and illegal to trade in in Pakistan, and those engaging in cryptocurrency transactions were still being referred to the authorities for prosecution. The revelation once again threw into sharp relief the confusion surrounding the government’s efforts to ‘mainstream’ cryptocurrency adoption.

Several questions have arisen since then. If the State Bank does not recognise cryptocurrencies as legal tender under any circumstances, how can the government use them to create a strategic reserve? Similarly, how has the government rationalised allocating national resources, for example, part of its power output, to businesses that engage in activities that are technically illegal? Furthermore, why is the government entitled to deal in cryptocurrencies when the Financial Monitoring Unit, a government intelligence department that tracks financial crimes, refers citizens dealing in crypto assets to law-enforcement agencies for legal action? There should have been answers to these questions by now in the form of various policy tweaks, but though the Pakistan Crypto Council earlier assumed responsibility for these, it still has nothing to show. In fact, it has only announced a high-level meeting on policy measures for tomorrow following public criticism of its disjointed strategy.

There is understandable scepticism about the use of a highly volatile and speculative class of asset when it comes to investing public resources. Cryptocurrencies are, no doubt, quite risky to deal with, and public funds are normally invested in stable and safe assets for good reason. At the same time, however, there is no denying that cryptocurrencies are rapidly emerging as an important technological innovation in our fast-evolving world, and there is a chance, however small it seems at the moment, that Pakistan could reap windfall dividends if it was able to position itself as a major player in the crypto world. There is no harm in attempting to do so. But since public resources will be at stake, the Pakistan Crypto Council must satisfy the critics with coherent policies to support its plans. Right now, the bombastic approach it has adopted is undermining its efforts. It must temper its zeal and focus on the homework.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2025


Overzealous justice

AN Islamabad antiterrorism court has handed out varying sentences to 12 individuals, including a PTI National Assembly member, in a May 9 rioting case. MNA Abdul Latif and other party supporters have been convicted of attacking a police station in the federal capital.

The sentences, the first related to the May 9 events in the capital, raise troubling questions about the use of antiterrorism laws against political dissidents, including lawmakers.

While it is true that the violent actions of PTI supporters after the arrest of their party chief and ex-prime minister Imran Khan were indefensible in many cases, should these individuals be tried under antiterrorism laws? After all, ATCs and the even harsher military courts are reserved for anti-state elements including ‘jet-black’ terrorists.


The PTI’s lawmakers and supporters do not fall within this very narrow category. They should have been tried under the regular courts. The ATC judge concerned has said that the convicts met the threshold of terrorism, while the party has termed the sentences “unjust” and “politically motivated”.

In a related development, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail of the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench, in a dissenting note, has criticised the use of courts martial in terrorism-related cases.

Pakistan indeed needs to tackle terrorism with the full force of the law. But there has to be a clear distinction between violent militants and political dissidents.

Political violence needs to be treated with the relevant legal instruments, while ATCs should be reserved for bringing violent terrorists to justice. While speaking in Lahore the other day, President Asif Zardari urged all “democratic forces” to unite.

Yet this unity will be hard to bring about if lawmakers and supporters of a major national political party are hounded by lawfare, using legal instruments meant for hardcore terrorists. All political forces, as well as the powers that be, must realise this.


The PTI has made plenty of mistakes in the course of its political journey, but parties evolve over time. The fact that it has a considerable national mandate cannot be ignored.

Instead of ‘punishing’ political opponents, a genuine process of reconciliation is needed with buy-in from all major political forces. Pakistan cannot afford internal discord and the suppression of rights at a time when it faces both external and internal threats to its security.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2025


Refuge for journalists

AFGHANISTAN’S journalists have access to the news but not the freedom to report it. Fear grips them and others who want to exercise their right to free expression; they risk detention, abduction, torture and even murder in their country if they speak out or report truthfully. As the West, which is largely responsible for the crisis in Afghanistan, denies space to Afghan media persons, many remain desperate for a way out of an oppressive homeland to safer countries. This situation is reason enough for Islamabad to show compassion and halt the deportation of Afghan media workers in Pakistan, who are at risk of persecution if they return to their native land. In this context, the Committee to Protect Journalists, along with other rights groups, has called upon Pakistan to suspend its Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan launched last October, and has asked countries “to ensure safe and legal passage for Afghan refugees and asylum seekers, including writers, journalists, artists, human rights defenders and others at risk of persecution…”. Under the plan, over a million Afghans have been sent back.

Media curbs in Afghanistan have led to a sharp decline in press freedom: according to Reporters Without Borders, Afghanistan ranks 178 out of 180 on the World Press Index. In 2021, before the Afghan Taliban retook Kabul, it was ranked 122. Reportedly, individuals, whose views and reportage clash with Taliban ideology, are being targeted. Terror is also used to control large sections of the youth that reject an extremist power structure. Pakistan must provide a safe sanctuary to proponents of free speech, culture and human rights so that truth and the people are not left at the mercy of a repressive regime. Present-day Afghanistan holds sobering lessons. Media freedom preserves a pluralistic, united and free society. A country that silences journalists and others is doomed to live in darkness, while an unfettered press guarantees peace and justice for all.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2025