The Bahawalpur district administration has lodged a case against the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), accusing ten of its employees of obstructing government officials from performing their duties.
In the case, registered at a local police station, the district administration has nominated ten NBP employees including its group chief M Shahzad A Shami and General Manager HR Bahalwalpur Region Dawood Malik.
According to sources, the row between the two government outfits started, when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited Islamia University Bahawalpur to attend a gathering in connection to his youth loan scheme. They said Additional Deputy Commissioner General (ADGC) Amjad Bashir refused to allow NBP’s Chairman Board of Directors Nayyar Kamal and four other guests who had been invited into the gathering. Upon this, the NBP guests allegedly misbehaved with the district official.
While the guests were allowed to attend the gathering eventually, the district administration sent the NBP a bill worth Rs0. 75 million for a musical show, which the bank administration refused to pay.
Talking to the media, the Bahawalpur DCO said the issue had no connection with the payment of the said bill. He said when the bank management refused to pay the bill, the district administration wrote it off and sent the bill to the Prime Minister’s secretariat.
He accused the NBP officers of misbehaving with the district officials. “A case has been registered due to the misbehaviour of the NBP officers,” the DCO said.
On the other hand, NBP officer Imran Butt told Daily Express that the report of an altercation between bank officials and district administration was baseless. “The case is only a conspiracy to avenge the refusal by the bank to pay the expenses, accrued on the musical show in the PM’s programme,” he added.
He said the NBP General Manager Dawood Malik had been released on interim bail and he would be following the case till the truth was uncovered.
The Bahawalpur DCO told Daily Express that he was in Lahore for a meeting with the chief secretary. He said he will follow the instructions from his superiors in this regard.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the National Bank Officers Federation Punjab, presided over by its chairman Rao Muhammad Toufiq, strongly protested against the distasteful attitude of the DCO Bahawalpur and condemned the Bahawalpur administration for registering a case against the bank officials.
NBP employees across Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, Dera Ghazi khan, Multan and Rahimyar Khan districts also demanded the immediate removal of the Bahawalpur DCO and an inquiry against him. Meanwhile, the bank employees across different districts of southern Punjab performed their duties, wearing black bands round their arms as protest.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 16th, 2014.