ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s state minister for crypto and digital assets, Bilal Bin Saqib, said on Saturday that blockchain technologies and digital assets should be evaluated through both technical and Shariah perspectives, days after one of the country’s most influential Islamic scholars questioned the permissibility of cryptocurrency under Islamic law.

The comments followed a meeting with Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, whose recent fatwa argued that cryptocurrency does not qualify as legitimate wealth under Islamic jurisprudence and therefore cannot be used to validly purchase goods.

Usmani’s intervention comes as Pakistan presses ahead with an ambitious push to regulate and expand its digital assets sector through the newly…