Pakistan has added piracy to its money-laundering law and widened the powers of its crypto regulator, in a package approved by the National Executive Committee on anti-money laundering on Tuesday 27 October 2026. The committee, chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, met at the Finance Division in Islamabad for its 19th session.

Section 28 of the Pakistan Maritime Zones Act 2023, covering piracy, will be added to Schedule I of the Anti-Money Laundering Act as a predicate offence, meaning piracy-linked funds can be pursued as money laundering. The Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) will be added to Schedule IV, and PVARA and the Financial Monitoring Unit are to design registration and suspicious-reporting rules for virtual-asset service providers on the goAML system.

Cash threshold raised

The committee also raised the daily currency transaction reporting threshold from Rs2 million to Rs3 million, with no quarterly cap set, and cleared in principle the extension of anti-money-laundering powers to provincial anti-corruption bodies, subject to final standard operating procedures. Finance Minister Aurangzeb called for the Financial Monitoring Unit's analytical and operational capacity to be strengthened through a clear implementation roadmap with defined timelines.

Reports differ on the maximum penalty attached to the piracy offence, so this article states no penalty figure. The committee framed the package as keeping Pakistan's framework responsive to evolving financial risks and new technologies.

Sources: TechJuice and Khabarwire, citing The Express Tribune and The Nation.