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Broadcast, press and speaking.

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Broadcast Press Speaking Engagements Speaker Bios Speaking Topics Booking

Broadcast

Over 300 broadcast appearances as a political and legal analyst, including as a regular contributor to Pakistan TV, the country's international broadcast channel. Coverage spans Pakistan's national security posture, South Asian strategic dynamics, active conflict in the Middle East, the geopolitics of financial regulation, and global capital flows. Officially appointed as Pakistan TV's South America Correspondent — reporting from São Paulo, Brazil.

Safi Ghauri on Regime Change in Venezuela — Pakistan TV Newsroom with Sana Maqbool. Safi's segments begin at 17:00 and 27:00.

International press

The Independent (UK) · April 2026
'Trump's blockade appears to be turning back tankers in the Strait of Hormuz — but Iran has a trick up its sleeve.' Cited on the threat unmanned underwater vehicles pose to US assets enforcing the blockade, alongside Chatham House, Kpler, New York Law School and Birkbeck.
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Bloomberg Arabic (Asharq Business) · April 2026
Interview on the financial and strategic dimensions of the Hormuz crisis: dollar dominance, Pakistan's position as ceasefire broker, and the cost of a prolonged closure to the GCC states.
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China Business Law Journal · Deals of the Year 2024
The USD 4.2 billion RUDA project, one of the largest Chinese infrastructure investments outside China, on which Esquare Legal acted for the Chinese investors.
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Regional and specialist press

ITWeb Africa · October 2026
'Regulation tests Nigeria's emerging crypto rail.' Cited on Nigeria's new digital-asset regime: regulatory certainty as the precondition for bank participation, and the consolidation pressure that licensing costs place on early-stage VASPs.
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TechRound · May 2026
On the Gulf's emergence as a settlement layer for crypto and stablecoin innovation, and why founders building cross-border B2B settlement are choosing the UAE.
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FinanceFeeds · May 2026
On institutional crypto participation and what institutional entry means for market depth and price discovery.
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Databird Business Journal · July 2025
Interview on cross-border crypto compliance, VARA and MiCA harmonisation, and building compliance frameworks across MENA, Latin America and the EU.
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Gulf News
'UAE Legal Experts Welcome Crypto Rules.' On the legal implications of Dubai's digital-asset framework.
Sunday Pakistan · 2025
Profiled as Pakistan's most prolific tech lawyer.
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Dawn and Geo News
Coverage of Pakistan's first BNPL licence (QisstPay, 2021), the PIA associations' privatisation challenge, and the Jang/Geo defamation award (2022).
BNPL → PIA → Defamation award →

Academic & institutional

Journal of Indian Studies, University of the Punjab · 2024
Lead author, 'Navigating Socio-Economic and Security Challenges: An Exploration of CBDC Implementation in Pakistan', Vol. 10, No. 1.
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Chinese Arbitration Research Institute · 2025
Expert interviewee in a peer-reviewed paper on blockchain arbitration and smart-contract enforceability.
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NEPRA · 2023
Presenter alongside the Chairman of Pakistan's electricity regulator at its Blockchain in Energy Trade webinar.
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Speaking Engagements

Safi Ghauri speaking at DARTE, European Commission and UNIDROIT expert series on MiCA and Travel Rule across Latin America

Safi Ghauri at the DARTE Digital Assets Roundtable Experts series, co-organised by the European Commission and UNIDROIT, São Paulo, March 2026.

Global Governance & Intergovernmental

EventDateRole & Context
Horasis Global Summit, University of São PauloOct 2025Speaker on digital assets regulation. 1,000 leaders from 50 countries. Opened by the Vice Governor of São Paulo state.
COP30 Side Events, Belém, Brazil2025Speaker on blockchain technology for climate finance infrastructure. UN climate conference.
UNODC Sensitization Workshop for Terror Financing Stakeholders on use of Cryptocurrencies and Dark Web2023Trainer. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Funded by U.S. Embassy / INL.
FATF Panel on Cryptocurrencies, Pakistan2023Panellist. Financial Action Task Force.

Major International Conferences

EventDateRole & Context
DARTE — European Commission + UNIDROIT, World Trade Center São PauloMar 2026Panellist. Co-organised by European Commission and UNIDROIT. MiCA and Travel Rule across Latin America.
Stellar Meridian, Copacabana Palace, Rio de JaneiroSep 2025Speaker. 1,200+ attendees. Former Central Bank of Brazil President keynoted. PayPal PYUSD launched at conference.
ETH Latam, São Paulo2025Panellist, closed-door high-level regulatory session with ETH Latam leadership.
Singularity by Stellar, Goa, IndiaFeb 2026Legal mentor on digital assets and regulation.
Web3Experts Brazil, São PauloJun 2026Speaker. Session on mapping regulatory pathways for crypto and blockchain companies in Brazil — covering BACEN licensing, VARA-to-Brazil corridors, MiCA considerations, and compliance for Brazilian founders.

Regulatory & Institutional

EventDateRole & Context
Panel on Chinese Infrastructure Contracts, Islamabad2023Invited address on interpretation and commercial implications of Chinese infrastructure contracts, delivered to civil service and policy officers.
NEPRA Blockchain in Energy Trade Webinar, PakistanJun 2023Presenter alongside NEPRA Chairman Tauseef H. Farooqi.
Training Civil Servants — Freedom of Expression, Islamabad2023Trainer for government officials.
Workshop Speaker — NIC IslamabadJun 2026Delivered a workshop on Unlocking the South American Market for Tech Startups at NIC Islamabad, Pakistan's flagship government-backed incubation programme under the Ministry of IT & Telecommunication and Ignite–National Technology Fund. Covered LatAm market entry strategy, legal frameworks for foreign companies, cross-border investment pathways, and expansion steps for Pakistani tech founders.
Google Developers Club — Web3 Panel2022Panellist.

Multi-Year Institutional Judging

EventDateRole & Context
IMechE Speak Out for Engineering — UAE nationals, Middle East regionals, Pakistan nationals, Africa regionals, Global finals2018–2024Distinguished Judge, all tiers, every year since 2018. UK Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
IMechE Abul Kalam Design Challenge, National Pakistan2019Distinguished Judge.

Speaker Bios

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Attribution line

Safi Ghauri, a Dubai-based barrister and General Counsel to digital-asset companies.

Short (2 sentences)

Safi Ghauri is a Dubai-based barrister and General Counsel to digital-asset and frontier-technology companies, and Managing Partner of Esquare Legal. He is also a geopolitical analyst with more than 300 broadcast appearances and Pakistan TV's South America Correspondent.

Full (for conference programmes)

Safi Ghauri is a Dubai-based General Counsel to digital-asset and frontier-technology companies, with 18 years in licensing, regulation, capital markets and disputes. He heads the legal function at InvoiceMate, Tharwa Finance and The Game Company, two of them on the UAE Future 100 list, and represents the world's second-largest crypto exchange before Pakistan's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. Earlier, he built the legal and compliance base behind Fasset's VARA licence and Series A, and secured Pakistan's first BNPL licence from the SECP for QisstPay. He is Managing Partner of Esquare Legal, the UAE-licensed, Dubai-headquartered crypto-native firm he founded in 2009, and a Partner of Tahota Law Firm. His litigation record includes Pakistan's largest defamation award (PKR 100 million) and a cryptocurrency matter won before the Supreme Court of India, and he acted for the Chinese investors in the USD 4.2 billion RUDA project. Called to the Bar of England & Wales at Lincoln's Inn and licensed to practise in the UAE, Pakistan and Brazil, he trained at Clyde & Co in London. He is also a geopolitical analyst with over 300 broadcast appearances and Pakistan TV's South America Correspondent, has spoken at Horasis, COP30 and the European Commission and UNIDROIT's DARTE series, and is a UNODC master trainer on crypto crime and terrorist financing.

Speaking Topics

The Geopolitics of Digital Capital
Cryptocurrency and digital assets are instruments of economic statecraft, not merely technology plays. MiCA, VARA, and the GENIUS Act are geopolitical battlegrounds. The Travel Rule is a jurisdictional power grab dressed as compliance. BRICS payment alternatives raise serious questions about dollar dominance that no regulator wants to answer in public. This session addresses what is actually happening, stripped of the consensus language.
Cross-Border Digital Asset Regulation — MENA, Brazil, and China Simultaneously
Most regulatory panels discuss one jurisdiction. This session addresses three active, fast-moving frameworks at the same time — and what it means in practice to structure a transaction that must satisfy all of them. Based on live mandates across all three corridors.
China's Infrastructure Architecture — Reading the Contracts
What BRI projects actually look like from the inside: the mandate structures, the enforcement clauses, where the leverage sits, and what Western practitioners consistently miss when reading Chinese infrastructure agreements. Drawing on direct experience leading the RUDA project, holding Chinese Embassy mandates, and delivering invited addresses on this subject to civil service and policy officers.
Illicit Capital in the Digital Age — From the NRO to Crypto-Asset Tracing
The legal architecture for recovering laundered proceeds — built from LLM research cited in Pakistan's NRO judgement — now applies directly to the most active frontier of financial crime. Crypto has become the primary instrument for the movement of illicit capital across borders. This session addresses what recovery looks like in practice, across jurisdictions, and what institutional capacity is required to make it work.
Brazil as a Global Capital Hub — What the MENA World Has Not Yet Noticed
Chinese FDI into Brazilian agriculture, infrastructure, and energy is accelerating. The MENA-to-Brazil corridor is equally underserved by legal and advisory infrastructure. Delivered from inside the opportunity — by a practitioner who is registered, present, and actively advising on the transactions connecting these flows.

Booking

For broadcast commentary, speaking invitations, panel bookings and media enquiries.

LocationDubai, UAE (also São Paulo and Islamabad; remote by arrangement)
LanguagesEnglish, Urdu
Direct contactsafighauri@esquarelegal.com
Monitored daily. For same-day segments, put the air time and time zone in the subject line.

Clips

Pakistan TV Newsroom, Venezuela — segment 1 (from 17:00)

Pakistan TV Newsroom, Venezuela — segment 2 (from 27:00)

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