Pindi post offices start closing saving accounts
NA panel asks why an outrageous sum of money was spent on restoring Murree post office. PHOTO: FILE
The post offices in Rawalpindi have started asking customers to close their saving accounts as part of nationwide directives of the federal government for complying with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) conditions, officials said.
The post offices offered saving and special savings accounts to people. These accounts were a blessing for people in the far-flung areas with no bank branches, technically called unbanked areas, an officer of the Pakistan Post Office said.
The Rawalpindi division, comprising Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Attock and Chakwal, has a huge population of retired military and civil servants drawing pensions from post offices and also saving money in the post office saving accounts, he said.
However, subject to FATF compliance, the government has declared that account could only be opened with a bank.
Subsequently, Pakistan Post will launch action against ordinary saving and special saving accounts from January 4 in light of the demands of FATF to get an exclusion from the grey-list.
The country-wide action will begin from Monday and until January 15, all saving and special saving accounts in the Pakistan Post will become inactive.
This will include all ordinary saving accounts with deposits of up to Rs100 and special savings accounts valued at up to Rs500 and those which did not undergo a transaction for a year will be shut down on January 15.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 4th, 2021.