islamabad a panel of pakistans central bank has recommended a complete ban on cryptocurrency and other related activities in the country according to a media report on thursday days after a top court ordered a probe into a us 100million digital currency fraudafter the scam became public the sindh high court shc directed the state bank of pakistan sbp to constitute a committee under the banks deputy governor to probe the fraudthe other members of the panel were from the ministries of finance informationtechnology the telecommunication authority and the security and exchange commissionthe court sought the committees opinion on whether any form of cryptocurrency could be permitted under pakistani law the news international reportedin its report the committee suggested a complete ban on all cryptocurrency and other related activities in the countrybased on a riskbenefit analysis it has come to light that the risks of cryptocurrencies far outweigh its benefits the newspaper reportedthe committee observed cryptocurrency was traded in speculation where people could be enticed to invest for shortterm capital gainsthe committee explained such enticement may result in the flight of precious foreign exchange reserves as well as transfer of illicit funds from the countrythe committee said there must be a ban on unauthorised operations of cryptocurrency exchanges stating that exchanges like binance octafx among others should be banned for their unauthorised operations while proportionate and dissuasive penalties should be imposed on themmeanwhile a petitioner at the shc opposed the recommendationsthe shcs division bench headed by justice mohammad karim khan agha directed the committee to send a copy of the report to the ministry of finance and ministry of lawthe ministries will consider the same at joint meetings and reach a final decision whether or not cryptocurrency in any form can be allowed in pakistan and if so what would be its regulatory frameworkthe court directed the ministry of finance and the ministry of law to place a joint recommendation as to whether the business of cryptocurrency in any form can legally be carried out in pakistan as this was also causing difficulty at this point in time for those persons engaged in it keeping in view the federal investigation agencys constant raids and freezing of bank accountsthe court directed secretary finance and secretary law and other senior officers from the ministry of law to appear before it and file a report on the matter on april 11 according to the news international reportlast week the federal investigation agency of pakistan detected an online fraud of us 100 million rs 17587 billion using a cryptocurrency and issued notice to the local representative of binance the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange