Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered officials to draw up a clear roadmap with time-bound targets for a fully digital payments system across Pakistan, as the government moves to end cheque payments in its own accounts within days. Cheque payments under Asaan Assignment Accounts will stop on 15 November, and from 16 November every such payment will go through the State Bank's Raast digital system.
The directive came at a high-level meeting in Islamabad on Friday, chaired by the prime minister to review progress on the government's cashless economy drive, according to a statement from the Prime Minister's Office. Officials briefed the meeting on how far the digitisation of payments has travelled across federal and provincial institutions, and on the next steps the government plans to take.
Shehbaz Sharif told the meeting that building a cashless economy was among his government's top priorities, and said positive results had already begun to emerge. He directed the relevant authorities to present the roadmap with specific timelines and targets, so that the shift to digital payments is measured against dates rather than left open-ended.
The most immediate change concerns the Asaan Assignment Accounts, the government accounts through which departments draw and disburse funds. The meeting was told that cheque payments through these accounts will be discontinued from 15 November, and that from the following day all payments under the accounts will be made through Raast across the country. Drawing and disbursing officers have already been trained for the switch, officials said.
The prime minister also directed that the government-backed scheme promoting digital payments between consumers and merchants through Raast QR codes should continue under government patronage. He said the Raast QR code system was proving instrumental in achieving the government's vision of a cashless economy, and that its use should keep expanding from shops and markets into everyday bills.
On that front, the meeting ordered an effective media campaign to encourage electricity and gas consumers to pay through the QR codes printed on their utility bills. All ministries and government institutions were instructed to ensure full implementation of the cashless economy plan, bringing the drive into the daily work of the state rather than leaving it as a slogan.
The briefing to the meeting set out the pace of the change inside government itself. Work on digitising payments in all federal and provincial government institutions is progressing rapidly, and payments in most institutions are expected to be fully digitised by December 2026. Payments under the Benazir Income Support Programme, the country's largest cash transfer scheme, are already made entirely through digital wallets.
The prime minister also stressed countrywide internet access, directing departments to improve connectivity so that people can reach digital services wherever they live. He instructed officials to address the problems faced by users of digital payment services, so that online transactions become more convenient and reliable, and the meeting was told that work is also under way on a payment system that could operate in areas without internet coverage.
Raast, the State Bank of Pakistan's instant payment system, sits at the centre of the plan. Launched in 2021, it allows money to move between bank accounts, wallets and merchants in seconds using a mobile number or a QR code, without the delays and paperwork of cheques and pay orders. The government has been pushing it as the backbone of its cashless ambitions because digital payments leave a record, cut the cost of handling cash and bring more of the economy into the formal financial system.
What happens next will be decided by the roadmap the prime minister has demanded, and by whether the 15 and 16 November deadlines hold across thousands of government offices. If the switch goes through on schedule, cheques will disappear from the Asaan Assignment Accounts next week, and the December target will show whether the rest of government payments can follow. The test, as the prime minister himself framed it, is not the announcement but the delivery — in offices, in shops, and on the bills that households pay each month.
Figures in this report were checked at 21:52 PKT on Friday, 06 November 2026.
This post is market news information only, not financial advice.
