ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will develop digital identities of all its citizens to enable secure and efficient payments, Pakistani state media reported on Sunday, amid the Islamabad’s push for economic transformation.
The report comes weeks after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed provincial governments to fully cooperate with the center to move the country toward a “cashless” system as the central government aims to digitize the economy for greater transparency. Pakistan is a cash-dominated market where a significant portion of transactions, particularly in the informal sector, are conducted in cash.
In recent years, the country’s central bank has taken steps to ensure a transition toward a more cashless economy so that transactions are more traceable, reducing chances of tax evasion and corruption. Pakistan’s digital payments have also been on the rise. Since its 2021 launch, the central bank’s Raast system has processed over 892 million transactions worth Rs20 trillion ($72 billion) as of July 2025.
On Sunday, PM Sharif presided over a review meeting in Islamabad on cashless economy, at which he directed provincial chief secretaries to fully cooperate with the federal government in expanding the Raast digital payment system to the district level.
