ISLAMABAD: There are posts viral on social media platform X, formely twitter, claiming that the Pakistan government has directed all public and private banks to stop collecting donations for war-hit Gaza.
The claim is false.
The government has asked bank to stop accepting donations for Palestine, a user said on X while posting an image of the circular from Bank Alfalah to justify his claim. The alleged circular by Bank Alfalah, dated November 3, asked all its branches not to accept any funds in favour of the bank account of the Palestinian Embassy.
Meanwhile, Pakistani govt has asked all banks to stop accepting donations for Palestine. Here is one circular from Bank Alfalah.
Earlier Pakistani govt cracked down on pro-Palestine protestors and the PCB asked one cricketer to delete a tweet dedicating a recent victory to Gaza. pic.twitter.com/32qMsC0ZCt— Waqas (@worqas) November 7, 2023
The post has been liked and reposted over 3,000 times so far.
Another X user on November 9 asked whether the State Bank of Pakistan take orders from Israel now?
This post had been seen over 150,000 times on X and reposted for 3,800 times.
Fact
Though the letter circulating online is authentic and has been issued by Bank Alfalah to its employees, however, it does not stop the staff from accepting donations for Gaza. The government of Pakistan or the State Bank have put no such restrictions.
Bank Alfalah in a statement clarified that the internal memo circulating on social media had created absolutely incorrect impression that the bank has stopped accepting donations for Palestinians.
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The statement said that in Pakistan, the operational accounts of embassies are restricted from receiving donations and they can only be accepted in bank accounts created especially for the objective.
Noor Ahmed, the chief spokesperson of the State Bank of Pakistan, has also labelled the claims as “fake news”.
