Rumours of accounts freeze create panic

KARACHI/Islamabad - Different speculations pertaining to default, freezing of bank accounts and lockers continued to haunt the stock market, currency markets and other businesses and social circles in the country, sparked panic among the people belonging to all walks of life.

Seeing a flurry of speculations, the State Bank of Pakistan moved to quell the rumours and maintained that the accounts, lockers and foreign currency of bank customers were safe and no proposal was under consideration to freeze them.

The rumours were so strong that the people started calling each other and a large number of panic people even contacted their banks whether the rumours were correct and was it true that the banks were on the verge of default. Large number of worried people visited their banks and most of them even withdrew amounts from their accounts fearing that the rumours might be true and they might be in trouble.

A large number of unnerved people thronged their banks in order to withdraw their money, resultantly most of the banks were compelled to close down their business activities before the scheduled closure time. In addition to that, ATMs of several banks ran out of cash as the large number of concerned people withdrew their money through ATMs.

Even the officials of the bank looked affected by the rumours and had no proper answers to queries of their clients when they approached them.

Shabir Zaidi, renowned economic analyst strongly rubbished the rumours and accused vested interest in floating these baseless rumours, which may adversely affect on already worsening economic situation of the country. They rejected the presumption of any liquidity crisis in the banking sector of the country.