Why is PayPal not in Pakistan yet? An open letter to President of PayPal

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PayPal, one of the world largest online transaction systems, preferred by majority of internet services, is still unavailable in Pakistan. One of the prestigious names in finance, Faisal Khan has been on the mission to get it introduced in the country for the last 10 years. He writes an open letter to the President of PayPal, David Marcus every year, explaining him the situation, offering to help him in any way whatsoever but has never received any response ever.

In his most recent letter, he clarifies the position of Pakistan in terms of internet and telecom usage and the lucrativeness of the market for PayPal. He comments that “the Pakistani economy is much larger than Bhutan, Chad, Honduras, Somalia, Maldives, Rwanda, Uganda, Yemen combined” yet these countries are privileged with the services of PayPal while Pakistan is being shunned. He also explained that despite all the terrorism and the hype that media has created, businesses and entrepreneurships are flourishing here and are desperately in need of such a mechanism to connect them to the financial services worldwide.

It may be the fault of State Bank of Pakistan as they could have reached out to PayPal with proper protocol and have all the financial procedures cleared out. A growing economy such as Pakistan which has seen the successful operation of a number of financial operations such as EasyPaisa, Omni, MobiCash and TimePey is quite capable of handling and in dire need of online transaction system of PayPal.