4 min read
Apple Pay in Pakistan: a dated timeline of every signal so far
What was found, when, by whom, and how strong each piece of evidence actually is. Updated as the story moves.
By the FounderDuels team ·
This is a running record of the public evidence around Apple Pay in Pakistan, with a plain assessment of how much weight each item carries. We will keep it updated. If you have something we have missed or got wrong, write to [email protected].
Standing position as of publication: Apple Pay is not available in Pakistan. Pakistan does not appear on Apple's own list of supported countries and regions, and Apple has made no announcement.
The infrastructure was already there
Ongoing. PayPak, operated by 1LINK under the State Bank of Pakistan, runs across more than 125,000 POS terminals and 18,500 ATMs, with EMV chip cards supporting contact and NFC contactless transactions.
Weight: background, not evidence of a launch. But it matters, because it means the acceptance hardware for tap-to-pay is deployed rather than hypothetical.
December 2025 — the scale of the domestic scheme
PayPak accounts for more than 25% of Pakistan's 53 million debit cards, but only about 6% of total card usage.
Weight: context. It sets the stakes — Apple supporting PayPak would matter far more to 1LINK than to Apple.
FY2025-26 — the state puts money behind the rival rail
The State Bank allocates Rs3.5 billion to a Raast QR subsidy programme. Daily Raast person-to-merchant transactions rise from roughly 60,000 in June 2025 to about 1.1 million by June 2026.
Weight: important counter-context. Pakistan's payments growth is happening on an account-to-account rail that Apple Pay does not run on.
January–March 2026 — the quarter that shows the shape of the market
Raast processes 742 million transactions worth Rs23.27 trillion. Retail payments across the banking system hit 3.7 billion transactions, with 3.4 billion (92%) through digital channels. More than 2.6 million merchants are onboarded to Raast P2M.
Weight: context, and a corrective. The claim that Pakistan is waiting for Apple Pay to go digital is not supported by the data.
June 2026 — 1LINK signals a domestic credit card
1LINK chief executive Najeeb Agrawalla says the company is working with member banks and the regulator to launch a PayPak credit card later in 2026.
Weight: moderate, indirect. A domestic scheme investing in credit is a scheme planning to be more than an ATM network.
August 2026 — the mandate proposal
1LINK proposes making PayPak cards compulsory for government salary accounts, subsidies, social safety-net programmes and mass transit, explicitly to reduce reliance on Visa and Mastercard.
Weight: moderate, indirect. Shows the strategic direction the domestic scheme is being pushed in.
24 September 2026 — EBANX enters Pakistan
At its annual Payments Summit, EBANX announces Pakistan joins its operational portfolio for the next semester, bringing Apple Pay decryption in-house and preparing integrations with JazzCash, Easypaisa and Raast.
Weight: moderate. A cross-border payments processor building Pakistani rails and Apple Pay handling at the same time is a real commercial signal — though EBANX supporting Apple Pay as a processor is not the same as Apple launching in Pakistan.
September 2026 — the iOS 27 beta strings
iOS 27 beta code is found to contain NETWORK_NAME_PAYPAK ("PayPak") and NETWORK_NAME_PAYPAK_CARD_NAME ("PayPak card") — the naming convention Apple uses when preparing a payment network ahead of a country launch.
Weight: the strongest single piece of evidence so far. It shows engineering work inside Apple on Pakistan's domestic scheme. It does not show agreed commercial terms, regulatory approval, or a date.
September 2026 — bank app sightings
Users post screenshots of an Apple Pay option appearing in the HBL app. Reports say Standard Chartered, Bank Alfalah and UBL have begun testing Apple Pay functionality.
Weight: weak to moderate. Feature flags leak and staged rollouts show options that do not work. No completed transaction has been published.
29 September 2026 — Apple Pay launches in India
Apple Pay goes live in India with Axis Bank, without UPI and without RuPay, after negotiations in which Apple reportedly sought 15–20 basis points against bank counter-offers around 10. HDFC, ICICI and SBI Card are not part of the launch.
Weight: high, as precedent. The most useful guide available to what a Pakistani launch would look like — partial, card-only, international schemes first, domestic rail absent.
What would move this from inference to fact
Pakistan appearing on Apple's supported-countries page; an Apple or joint bank announcement; or a verified completed transaction. Nothing below that bar settles it.
Sources
- Electronic payments reach 3.7b transactions — The Express Tribune
- Raast: Pakistan's Instant Payment System — State Bank of Pakistan
- PayPak — 1LINK
- 1LINK proposes mandatory PayPak cards for govt salaries — Profit by Pakistan Today
- EBANX advances emerging market infrastructure with Pakistan expansion in motion — GlobeNewswire
- Countries and regions that support Apple Pay — Apple Support
Published by FounderDuels. Corrections: [email protected]
Something here wrong or out of date?
Tell usMore from the blog
All posts- The Pakistani fintech opportunity map, late 2026Where the gaps actually are: reconciliation, recurring billing, merchant credit, and the boring infrastructure nobody posts about. With the numbers behind each one.
- Apple Pay in Pakistan: what would have to be true for it to launch this yearWorking backwards from a launch to the specific conditions it requires — and an honest assessment of which of them we have evidence for.
- A founder's guide to Pakistani payment rails in 2026Raast, PayPak, Visa and Mastercard, JazzCash and Easypaisa, and possibly Apple Pay. What each one is actually good for, and what it costs you to support.