Banks to close for four days?

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday announced that banks across the country would remain closed on Friday due to Zakat deduction.

“The State Bank of Pakistan will remain closed for public dealing on Friday (March 24, 2023), which shall be observed as a ‘Bank Holiday’ for the purpose of deduction of Zakat,” a notification issued by the central bank said.

Therefore, the central bank will remain closed for four days as March 23 (Thursday) is also a public holiday on account of Pakistan Day and the SBP remains closed on Saturday and Sunday. 

Usually, a bank holiday is observed on the first day of Ramadan, however, the central bank mentioned that “since the first of Ramadan-ul-Mubarak, 1444 AH is likely to fall on Thursday, March 23, (already being a public holiday).”

Therefore, all banks, development finance institutions (DFIs), and microfinance banks (MFBs) shall, therefore, remain closed for public dealing on the afore-mentioned date.

However, all employees of the banks, DFIs and MFBs will attend the office on bank holidays treating it as a normal working day (except for public dealing).

Meanwhile, those branches of commercial banks which remain open on Saturday will continue to do so.