By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Members of the Senate Standing Committee on IT and Telecom voiced serious reservations regarding the National Crypto Council, questioning its legal framework and authority during a recent committee meeting chaired by Palwasha Khan.
Senators Humayun Mehmood and Kamran Murtaza were particularly critical. Kamran Murtaza asked whether the parliament had been consulted on the council’s formation and if it had any legal backing, stressing that every council requires legislative support.
Humayun Mehmood challenged whether the prime minister’s executive order alone could establish such a body and argued that the crypto council’s mandate should lie with the IT ministry, not the finance ministry, which was already overburdened. The IT secretary briefed the committee on various topics, including the renewal of long-distance international (LDI) licenses and progress on the Digital Nation Pakistan Act 2025.
The secretary said the Sindh High Court had referred all LDI license cases back to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which had completed hearings and planned to announce decisions after Eid.
