State Bank Has Failed to Protect Interests of Bank Depositors: Senator Saleem Mandviwalla

The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue recommended the “State Owned Enterprises (Governance and Operations) (Amendment) Bill, 2023 with amendments. The parliamentary panel met with Senator Saleem Mandviwalla in the chair here on Wednesday and deliberated on the Bill titled “State Owned Enterprises (Governance and Operations) (Amendment) Bill, 2023.” Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi, the bill’s mover, stated that the primary objective is to restrain the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officers of State Owned Enterprises from using company assets for political and monetary purposes, proposing disqualification for such actions. The Committee made two amendments to the amendment bill: firstly, reduced the 20 years of relevant experience for the Chief Executive Officer to 10 years and changed the words ‘Personal gains and Political point scoring’ to ‘Personal and Monetary Gains’. However, the Secretary Finance opposed the amendments while saying that these were already covered in the Companies Act and SOE law. The committee took up the matter of Rs. 410 million that went missing from the bank account of an overseas Pakistani’s account in Karachi. The aggrieved party apprised the committee that they had transferred the amount to a foreign bank operating in Karachi in 2017. However, last year when they went to the bank for withdrawal, the bank replied that they had already withdrawn the amount and closed their account. They further added that bank officials had withdrawn their money by committing forgery, and currently, the matter is with the FIA. Senator Mandviwalla stated that in the recent period, certain events have revealed that the State Bank has failed to protect the interests of depositors. The Committee decided to invite the Chairman of the Bank and the Director of FIA, along with Investigating Officers, in the next meeting for further deliberations. The Senate body discussed the motion moved by Senator Zarqa Suharwardy on controlling the non-development expenditure of the Government. The Secretary Finance stated that the government is complying with austerity measures, resulting in government spending for the current fiscal year staying within the budget. The Committee directed the Finance Division to provide details of the budget saved following the issuance of austerity measures notification, issued by the Finance Division. While discussing the Public Petition for the deletion of the proviso in the Customs Act 1969 added by the Finance Act, 2022, Chairman FBR said that the proviso in Customs Act 1969 cannot be deleted as it is part of the Finance Act, 2022, and he assured the Committee that the FBR will consider the concerned proviso at the time of passage of the upcoming Finance Bill. Additionally, the Committee deferred the Government Bills titled ‘The Deposit Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2024’ and ‘The Banking Companies Amendment Bill, 2024’ until the next meeting.” The meeting was attended among others by Senators Sherry Rehman, Saadia Abbasi, Zeeshan Khanzada, Kamil Ali Agha, Bahramand Khan Tangi, Zarqa Suharwardy, Secretary Finance Division Imdad Ullah Bosal, Chairman FBR, Governor SBP and other senior officials of relevant departments.