Three-, five-, 10-, 15- and 20-year Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) carry coupon rates of 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 percent, respectively.
Pakistan has no regulatory framework to govern coupon stripping but finance ministry officials say they hope to have one in place by the end of current fiscal year.
"This will not only allow the market to come up with a credible zero-coupon curve, but will effectively increase the trading volume," said Gilani.
Analysts say the measure could boost trading volume because some investors prefer to buy bonds without coupons. Such "zero-coupon" instruments offer a known return until maturity.
Bonds with coupons offer less certainty, because an investor intending to reinvest the money from coupons will not know at the outset what yields will be available when the payments are made.
Gilani said the government would continue issuing the bonds with coupons and would permit investors to strip off the coupons and trade the resulting zero-coupon bonds.
Pakistan launched its first long-term PIBs in December 2000 to tap institutional investment and set a benchmark for corporate yields.
But trading in PIBs dried up over the past few months as issuance slowed. Trading is so thin that the bonds' yield curve is not considered a reliable benchmark for setting other interest rates.
Thanks to strong revenues, Pakistan outlined in October a much smaller than expected programme of bond issues worth 11 billion rupees for the fiscal year ending June 30.
So far this year no PIBs have been issued at all. The government scrapped two auctions planned for August and November.
Officials and analysts agree that a broader participation of investors is needed, which could be achieved if the bonds were listed on the local exchanges.
Gilani said the government was thinking about that option.
Domestic government debt is about 2 trillion rupees ($33.67 billion) rupees, of which around 349 million rupees, or 17 percent, is in the form of long-term bonds.
Analysts say the listing of government securities on the stock exchanges could have significant implications on the country's capital markets and banking system.
"The increased liquidity and ease of investment would attract funds from both individual and institutional investors, resulting in some disintermediation of the flow of financial resources away from the banking system," said Asif Qureshi, research head at AMS Brokerage.
"Moreover, it would help in enhancing the credibility of the yield curve while also facilitating the development of a fixed-rate corporate debt market."