Islamabad, May 17 (IANS): PayPal will not come to Pakistan despite the governments efforts to convince the American company, which operates a worldwide online payment system that supports online money transfers, to introduce its services in the country, said a senior official.

"PayPal did not decline because it has issues operating in Pakistan. Their internal working is such that they are not ready to introduce services in Pakistan," Ministry of Information Technology Secretary Maroof Afzal told a Senate Standing Committee on Thursday.

While Afzal tried to explain why PayPal was not interested in coming to Pakistan, Senator Muhammad Ateeq Shaikh said PayPal was afraid to come to Pakistan unless there were laws to protect the company's interests, reports Dawn news.

"One case of money laundering could cause significant problems for PayPal. PayPal must have the backing of the government that it can secure the interests of the company," Shaikh added.

In February, Finance Minister Asad Umar had said that talks to bring PayPal to Pakistan were underway, while rubbishingreports that the federal government was impeding the company's entry into the Pakistani market.

In November 2015, the IT Ministry had announced that it was set to invite global online payment giants PayPal and Alibaba to offer their services in Pakistan.