IF you are unemployed or are a housewife or retired from a private service, most of our banks will not open a new account in your name. It is impossible for people without a job or a regular source of income to open a bank account.

While the government is trying to document the economy by encouraging people to use banking channels for all cash transactions, the banks, on the other hand, do not open accounts on one pretext or another.

They would tell a prospective customer that since he could not confirm the source of income, their compliance department would not let them accept opening an account.

A close relative of mine had a joint account with her husband who recently died. Their joint bank account had been maintained for several decades and satisfactorily too. But now after the death of her husband, when she tried converting the account or open a new account in her name, being a housewife without a regular source of income, the bank is not ready to accept her request.

There are thousands of people who do not have a regular job but still wish to keep their life-time savings in banks but are unable to do so as banks do not accept their requests.

I request the State Bank of Pakistan to look into the matter.

Khawar Ahsan

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2016