Minister of State Bilal Azhar Kayani chaired a high-level review meeting at the Finance Division to assess the one-year progress of the government’s ‘Cashless Pakistan’ initiative. The initiative, launched in June 2025 under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister, is built on three core pillars: enhancing public convenience, promoting transparency, and accelerating the formal documentation of the economy through digital payments.
Key Milestones Achieved
Kayani reviewed key milestones achieved during the first year of implementation, noting significant progress across the digital payments ecosystem. Annual digital transactions rose from Rs6.9 billion to Rs11.3 billion. Active digital payment merchants increased from 0.5 million to over 2 million, supported by the government’s Raast QR Code initiative. Digital banking users expanded to more than 135 million.
Sub-Committees and Financial Inclusion
Three sub-committees operate under the main Cashless Pakistan Committee to execute the Prime Minister's directives: Digital Payments – Innovation and Adoption led by the Governor State Bank, Digital Public Infrastructure led by the Minister of IT & T, and Digitizing Government Payments led by the Finance Secretary. Kayani noted encouraging progress in financial inclusion, which increased to 69 percent, while the gender gap continued to narrow through targeted interventions.
Public Sector Digitization
He further reviewed progress on public sector digitization, with 25 high-impact federal and provincial entities identified for complete digitization through Raast by December 2026. Kayani noted the progress made on digitizing government-to-person (G2P) payments, with approximately 75% digital payments acceptance at both centralized and self-accounting entities.
Commitment to Transparency
The minister of state emphasized the importance of sustaining the momentum to further accelerate Pakistan’s digital transformation. He reiterated the government’s commitment to working closely with regulators, financial institutions, fintech companies, and the private sector to expand digital payments, strengthen financial inclusion, and support a transparent and documented economy. To ensure absolute transparency and prudent use of public funds, Kayani emphasized validating progress, streamlining reporting gaps, and eliminating data duplication. A third-party has been hired by the government of Pakistan, which has started assessments to ensure transparency.
Meeting Attendees
The meeting was attended by senior representatives of the State Bank of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Controller General of Accounts (CGA), MOITT, NADRA, Raast Payments Pakistan, including Ammar Naqvi, Special Secretary MoITT; Sohail Javaad, Executive Director DFS Group, SBP; Ahsan Saeed, Chief Executive Officer, Raast Payments Pakistan; Muhammad Imaduddin, Director SBP; Rehman Qamar, CPO NADRA; Zafar Masud, Chairman Pakistan Banking Association; Atif Aslam Bajwa, President and CEO of Bank Alfalah; Jahanzaib Khan, President and CEO Easypaisa Digital Bank; Aamir Ibrahim, Chief Executive Officer, Jazz; Waqas ul Hasan, Chief Executive Officer Karandaaz Pakistan; Sharjeel Murtaza, Chief Digital Officer, Karandaaz Pakistan; Taimoor Ali, Group Head Digital Financial Services Karandaaz Pakistan; Dr Shazia (Prime Minister’s Office) and Abbas Ali & Adeel Shirazi along with their team from EY.
