Pakistan says economic affairs ministry's X account hacked after post seeking more loans

Islamabad/New Delhi: Pakistan on Friday said that the X account of its ministry of economic affairs was hacked and an appeal was posted on it for more international loans to meet the “heavy losses" caused by the current tensions with India. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a 'FAKE TWEET ALERT', saying the account was "hacked".

An official also confirmed that the X account has been hacked, and “work was going to switch off the account”.

The hacking led to a fake appeal by the Economic Affairs Division of the ministry, calling for more loans and urging the international community to help defuse the tensions with India following the Pahalgam terror attack. The tensions caused the stock market in Pakistan to tumble. “Govt of Pakistan appeals to International Partners for more loans after heavy losses ‘inflected’ by enemy. Amid escalating war and stocks crash, we urge international partners to help de-escalate. Nation urged to remain steadfast,” the post on the account said.

Interestingly, ‘inflicted’ was misspelt in the post, leading to suspicion as official handling accounts seldom make such glaring mistakes. The post came after the Pakistan Stock Exchange fell by more than 6,000 points on Thursday. However, the market recovered on Friday and gained more than 1,000 points in the morning trading session.

The timing of the post was also intriguing as it coincided with a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board to decide on the next installment of a USD 7 billion loan agreed last year.

Pakistan is expected to get more than USD 2 billion as part of the second tranche of the loans and a new loan which the fund approved to combat the impact of environmental changes.

Earlier, India's Press Information Bureau had took a swipe at the fashion the economic affairs division of Pakistan was seeking alms. PIB is central government's media information and publicity arm.