Why PayPal and Stripe Can’t Come to Pakistan

The Untold Story of Regulatory Gridlock, Market Viability, and Capital Control

For over a decade, Pakistan’s 2.37 million freelancers and burgeoning technology sector have operated in a peculiar financial twilight zone. The country ranks fourth globally in freelance growth, exports $3.2 billion annually in IT services, and boasts 88 percent digital payment adoption in retail transactions. Yet two of the world’s most essential paym…