It can only happen in Pakistan

FP Staff Report

As the heat by the labour unions mounted and the pressure built up in the National Assembly by the opposition against the former president of Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) R. A. Chughtai, he was removed as president of ZTBL. But the interesting saga does not end here. Mr. Chughtai has taken over immediately after his removal as Chairman of SME Bank.
It is worth recalling that the gentleman Rasheed Akhtar Chughtai who was previously Deputy Governor State Bank of Pakistan and headed the controversial reserves department of the SBP and his name was associated with a number of scams in the SBP. When remittances of foreign exchange was prohibited on the eve of nuclear blast in 1998, a number of businessmen and bankers had remitted foreign exchange in violation of the ban with the connivance of the officers of the Exchange Control Department of SBP headed by him.
However, because of the support he still enjoys with the powers at the helm of affairs he was after retirement from SBP made President ZTBL. A report filed in this newspaper on 15th July 2006, in which Mr. Muhammad Laeeque Khan, a member of the Finance & Revenue Committee, while talking to our correspondent told us that the parliamentarians in Islamabad continued to express deep concerns over the irregularities at ZTBL.
He had told us that President ZTBL during his presentation in front of the Finance & Revenue Committee initially denied all the allegations regarding illegal recruitments and misappropriations of funds undertaken by him but afterwards, on presentation of all evidences against him, admitted that some recruitments were undertaken by him in spite of the stay order by court prohibiting any new appointment.
It was mentioned in the news report that the Federal Tribunal Services has refrained ZTBL by issuing a Stay Order on November 05, 2006 not to recruit anyone in the bank but President ZTBL intentionally recruited Muhammad Riaz and Ms. Sultana Mehmood on exorbitant salaries, who were his close relatives and friends.
The opposition parliamentarian told us that keeping in view the poor performance of ZTBL, JCR-VIS Credit Rating Company has awarded B- (B minus) which shows a decline as compared to ZTBL's previous AAA level. The working of the bank, he said, was likely to deteriorate further if the head of ZTBL remained in the ZTBL office.
The parliamentarians had noted that the Balance Sheet of the bank was being manipulated by its present management as the fixed assets shown on December 31, 2005 were highly deceptive. These also included branches, valuable property in the country like ZTBL's Zero Point Head Office in Islamabad, building in Sargodha, Sahiwal, Okara, D.G. Khan, D.I. Khan, Lahore, Faisalabad, Quetta, Karachi, Multan, Mirpurkhas, Larkana, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Loralai, Muzaffarabad, Muzaffar Garh, Gujranwala, Peshawar etc. as well as the Staff College situated on a valuable 40 acre land in Islamabad.
He further said that members of the so-called Senior Management Team who were employed on contract on fixed salaries were allowed to split their salaries among various items to escape from taxes causing a total loss of Rs1.846 million to the national exchequer. On November 28, 2005, the ZTBL auditors pointed out this lapse and advised investigations for such lapse on the part of management leading to a huge loss to the public exchequer.
"All new vehicles were purchased by Chughtai on commission basis in order to have additional money," he stated.
He was of the view that ZTBL was a national institution so recruitments should be done from all over the country but not a single person was recruited from the Province of Sindh and Balochistan as the ZTBL Chairman was busy in recruiting his kinsmen and those who directly worked for his benefit.
Speaking again to this correspondent on the phone Mohd. Laeeq Khan said that now it seems quite incredulous that the powers to be in Islamabad have immediately placed Mr. Chughtai as Chairman of SME Bank which again is a government institution which was revived by Mr. Mansoor Khan, the former president of the Bank. He further maintained that the NA Committee will be taking up the issue in its next meeting.
Also, several bankers were of the view as to why the present government chooses to employ people of questionable records on high offices in the government and the state owned financial institutions.
One financial institution's senior official very correctly stated that such appointments and nepotism can only happen in Pakistan.