President National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Syed Ahmed Iqbal Ashraf informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the words "ghost pensioners" being used in media reports were incorrect and that those were never mentioned by NBP officials. The meeting of PAC was held with Syed Khurshid Shah, Leader of the Opposition in the chair to examine audit accounts of Finance Division for fiscal year 2009-10.
The President NBP explained that the management of National Bank of Pakistan had initiated automation of its pension system in 2012 and adopted a new procedure for processing pension payments of pensioners following a ruling of Supreme Court of Pakistan. The State Bank of Pakistan issued a circular, allowing payment of pensions by all branches of all licensed commercial banks as per an order of the apex court, the bank while disbursing pensions throughout the period has been distributing to verified pensioners. He said that the impression given in the media reports that there were people, who received pensions were not genuine, is incorrect. "What NBP described was that prior to 2012, we were servicing 2.1 million plus pensioners and that number reduced to 1.629 million in 2015," he added.
President NBP further explained that a decline in the number of the pensioners over the period could be attributed to multiple reasons: some moved to other commercial banks, some could not fulfill the standardization requirements of NBP, pensioners who may have opted for other institutions or pensioners whose pensions may have been stopped by their respective organisations.
Responding to the Chairman Committee, Secretary Finance said the ministry has taken up the matter with Controller General Accounts for the verification of pensioners shifted to other commercial banks or post offices. Auditor General of Pakistan Rana Asad Amin said that it there was a perception regarding existence of 'ghost pensioners' and he had initiated a special audit of both civilian and military accounts on a test case basis to find out the facts. He said National Bank is 100 percent owned by the government but the AGP is not allowed to carry out its audit. Chairman Committee directed the Secretary Finance to review the laws of NBP related to audit by AGP as well as collect information from other commercial banks for the verification of alleged 600,000 'ghost pensioners'.
The Chairman further directed the management of NBP to provide a list of those industrialists who managed to have their loans write off. He also questioned write off powers of board of directors. President NBP clarified that it was a misconception that National Bank had the powers to write off loans. He said the bank has no mandate to write off loans, however, they can only give relaxation in rate of interest with the approval of competent forum.
He said he would provide the history of loans sanctioned to various individuals and businesses in the last 10 years in the shape of a comparative study. He said their default ratio is very small as compared to other schedule banks'. Replying to a question of Member Committee Sheikh Rashid regarding privatisation of NBP, Secretary Finance informed the committee that it is not on privatisation list as it has a prestigious position over other commercial banks. He explained that it plays the role of treasury where no branch of State Bank of Pakistan is available.
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