‘MONEY in the bank’ does not have the same meaning in Pakistan. There is such all-around uncertainty in the air that even money under the pillow cannot be considered yours because any fairy could claim it. Let us take the banking sector, for instance. Since the much-trumpeted banking sector reforms, initiated in the late 1980s, things may have improved for the IFIs and all those who want to keep an eye on the flow of private remittances to and from Pakistan, but nothing has changed for the clients or consumers of the banking system.
Whether it is financial inclusion, ease of doing business, or access to finance, there has been no discernible improvement; only a deterioration in service delivery is palpable. This newspaper reported recently on an unprecedented increase in the number of banking complaints regarding service and fraud that were filed with the banking mohtasib in the first six months of the current year.
The privatisation of the sector, intended to foster competition, improve services for the banked, and increase inclusion for the unbanked, failed on these fronts due to the policy environment that prioritises other objectives over service delivery. It remains impossible for those employed in the informal sector and housewives to open an account. Of late, all we have achieved in the banking industry is its renaming as Islamic banking.
A major push against hawala and hundi transactions was a big part of the effort to document the economy. Working in East Asia, I once sent Eidi for my nieces and nephews on Eidul Fitr in the mid-1990s. By Eidul Adha, a good two months and 10 days later, the cash gift had still not been received in the respective accounts. My family, sick of my queries, begged me to spare them the ordeal in the future.
Nothing has changed for the clients of the banking system.
Having learned my lesson, I asked a hawala agent if he could transfer some money to my mother in Karachi a few months later. He asked for her NIC number and the address. I told him to get an equivalent amount of foreign currency from my office. That evening, my mother called to ask if I had sent her money. The hawala people delivered the money the same day.
That was then; this is now. With the FATF and our track record of utilising non-banking channels for all sorts of dubious activities, one does not, for a second, consider using anything that is not 100 per cent lawful. Between my former employer, headquartered abroad, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), and one of the largest commercial banks in Pakistan, of which I am an unfortunate customer, my pension often gets lost in the complex tracking system, and it is up to me to figure out who dropped the ball where. It can take weeks, and no one is accountable.
Go to your local bank to withdraw cash, and you may be surprised to learn that your account has been frozen due to a lack of biometric authentication. That you have done it multiple times does not matter. Some unknown SBP circular is cited as requiring it anew. Ask for the circular, and they fail to produce it. Submit your biometrics again. They would tell you that it takes a minimum of 72 hours to reactivate your account. That you need the money immediately does not matter. As you wait and sulk, you cannot help but wonder why the bank did not notify you of your account’s status. All you have on your phone are offers to get a pizza discount or buy two towels and get one free on Independence Day.
Some private banks are also involved in a real estate racket. Here is how it works: every bank has an asset acquisition department. It is responsible for identifying and acquiring suitable properties for opening bank branches. It contacts prospective landlords, offering them a fabulous rent and a lease contract of five to 10 years. They ask for alterations to the property, ranging from renovations to structural changes. Get the work done, and having borne months of lost income, you are told to cough up six months to a year’s worth of prospective rent as a bribe to the acquisition team.
If you are gullible enough to make this payment, another SBP circular is cited, directing the bank to reduce the number of its branches, thereby cancelling out the need for the rental property. As for recouping the ‘investments’ made in this shady enterprise, it depends on who has more lawyers on retainer and who has more capacity to hurt the other side. Whether this can happen without the knowledge of the commercial banks’ senior management and their regulator is anybody’s guess.
Getting money in the bank is a challenge; taking it out is a pain. You may go ‘laughing all the way to the bank’; you could be sent home crying.
The writer is a poet. His latest publication is a collection of satire essays titled Rindana.
shahzadsharjeel1@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2025