Political Analysis and Global Affairs

  After 23 successful instalments, my final Bank Alfalah loan payment became a dispute when the Alfa app showed “EMI Already Paid,” but the bank later treated the instalment as overdue and imposed Rs 1,725 in charges. By early September, I thought my Bank Alfalah personal loan was almost finished. I had paid 23 of 24 instalments. For months, the repayment pattern had been familiar. Bank Alfalah would send an SMS before the due date telling me to keep enough money in my account for auto-debit. The instalment would then be collected. The final instalment did not follow that pattern. When I later tried to deal with it through the Alfa app, the screen displayed a simple message: “EMI Already Paid.” Then another Bank Alfalah system told me something very different. My loan was overdue. A late-payment charge followed. What began as a dispute over Rs 1,725 has left me with a larger question about digital banking in Pakistan: when a bank’s automated systems give a customer conflicting inf...