Pakistan says economic affairs ministry’s X account hacked; deletes loan appeal post

Pakistan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Friday that its official X account had been hacked. This came after a controversial post appeared on the account, appealing to international partners for additional loans amid rising tensions with neighbouring India.

The post, which has since been deleted, prompted the ministry to clarify that it "did not tweet" the message. The ministry told Reuters, "We are working to have the Twitter (X) switched off."

The tweet in question read: “Govt of Pakistan appeals to International Partners for more loans after heavy losses inflected by enemy.” It tagged the World Bank and called on global partners to help ease tensions following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.

The message added: “Amid escalating war and stocks crash, we urge international partners to help de-escalate. Nation urged to remain steadfast.”

Pakistan remains one of the largest debtors to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with around $8.8 billion outstanding, according to the Times of India. Moody’s has previously warned that any prolonged military conflict with India could severely impact the country's economic stability, hinder fiscal reform, and damage growth prospects.

This development came as X’s @GlobalAffairs account was briefly withheld to users in India on Friday before being reinstated around 11am.

On Thursday night, X disclosed that the Indian government had issued blocking orders for 8,000 accounts in the country, “subject to potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment of the company’s local employees”.

X added: “The orders include demands to block access in India to accounts belonging to international news organisations and prominent X users. In most cases, the Indian government has not specified which posts from an account have violated India’s local laws. For a significant number of accounts, we did not receive any evidence or justification to block the accounts.”

The platform further stated that it disagrees with the Indian government’s demands, asserting that such actions amount to censorship of both existing and future content.