A BANK holiday is observed in Pakistan for the purpose of deducting zakat. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and all other banks remain closed for public dealing for deducting Zakat. It is also not clear as to why the SBP is closed where it does not deal with any individual accounts.

Readers may recall that in the past no holiday was observed by banks which rather opened an hour late after deducting Zakat through the computerized system. This is rather a matter of one hour for the system to deduct Zakat from relevant account-holders by using a simple command.

The federal finance minister and the State Bank governor should revisit the decision to keep banks closed on the first day of Ramazan.

A banker

Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2017