Digital identification: Pakistan intends to modernise their longstanding system of vast informal economy and low tax compliance by a thorough move towards digitalisation. The intention is to 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.
Although, the applicability and security of such a system has certain limitations—
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. Such an announcement from the country’s prime minister is not a surprise considering his advocacy of Cryptocurrency (neglecting all the potential shortcomings of such a clandestine system of economy).
Digital identification
Pakistan is a cash-dominated market where a significant portion of transactions, particularly in the informal sector, are conducted in cash. The question arises whether in a rapidly changing world the only possible way forward to enable transparency and accountability is digitisation or does such a move lead towards a fundamental irreverence of all the other institutions in the country that remain predominantly backwards still.
