Pakistan’s government is stopping cheque payments through its Asaan Assignment Accounts on 15 November, and from 16 November everything under those accounts goes through Raast. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also told officials to bring him a dated plan for making every payment in the country digital.
The announcements followed a Friday 6 November session at which Sharif reviewed progress on the cashless economy. Most of what he asked for is aimed at government departments, but one item reaches shoppers and bill payers: the QR codes already printed on electricity and gas bills.
Take the timetable first. The cheque stops on the 15th, Raast starts on the 16th, and the officers who authorise and release money from these accounts have finished their training. They work in federal offices and departments, so suppliers and agencies feel this change more than someone with an ordinary bank account.
Elsewhere in government, Benazir Income Support Programme money already goes only to digital wallets, according to what the meeting was told, and by December most federal and provincial bodies are expected to be fully digital too. Officials are also developing a method for places without internet, but no design was given. Radio Pakistan’s account of the meeting adds that every ministry was told to carry out the plan in full.
For bill payers, Sharif wants a media drive pointing customers to the QR code on their bill and Raast QR payments at shops to stay government-backed. As for the headline goal, he gave officials no date for the roadmap, only an instruction that it carry timelines and targets, and that user complaints be settled straight away along with internet coverage.
It follows a similar order in the spring. In March, Sharif told government institutions to put QR codes on all bills, and at that meeting he was told that more than 127 million people were using digital banking. Federal and provincial governments had sent Rs. 1.6 trillion in direct payments through Raast between July 2025 and January 2026.
The push has been running for a while. Sharif set up a high-level committee for the cashless economy in June 2025, and in July this year he ordered that money sent home from abroad be fully digitised. The government has said the drive is meant to bring transparency to the economy, alongside tax reforms and a more efficient Federal Board of Revenue.
No date has been given for the roadmap itself. The next checkable milestones are the 15 and 16 November change for the assignment accounts and the December target for most government payments.
