The dilemma of digital disconnect

A FAMILY was driving home from a wedding when they witnessed two masked men on a bike with guns snatch a laptop case from a person on a motorbike and zoom away. The incident took seconds. Sitting in the car, the wife promptly took off her gold jewellery and stowed it away at the back of the dashboard. Nobody batted an eye. In Karachi, everybody has several stories of muggings. Pakistan is not a country known for its safety. In Karachi, especially, the risk of having one’s wallet, purse or mobile snatched on any given day is quite high, making carrying wads of cash around quite risky. Yet, the country is steadfastly resisting all efforts towards digitisation. Given the gradual increase in the number of point-of-sale (POS) machines around the country, one should be able to assume that more people are becoming comfortable with paying through cards. The State Bank has mandated all tier I merchants, from retail to restaurants, to accept POS payments.