Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs on Wednesday reviewed the National Bank of Pakistan's (NBP) payment system for pensioners and directed NBP to install biometrics system at its all branches in the country up to March 31, 2016. The committee led by its Chairman Senator Saleem Mandviwala, asked the bank to submit eight years record of all the pensioners, said statement issued by the Senate committee here.
Other members of the Senate Committee were Senator Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari, Mrs Nuzhat Sadiq, Saud Majeed, Sardar Fateh Muhmmad Hassani and Islamuddin Shaikh. The Senate Standing Committee also discussed the issue of ghost pensioners getting pension from NBP. The Senators were informed that as a result of the Supreme Court of Pakistan's verdict the number of pensioners registered with NBP has dropped to 1.5 million from 2.2 million. Now, there is no ghost pensioner with NBP. Chairman of the Senate's committee disagreed to the NBP's claim and directed for submitting the record of 600,000 pensioners who were offloaded from NBP's pensions system. NBP officials informed the Senators that the bank had started the procurement of bio-metric machines and those would be installed soon in all the branches. The committee also took up the issue of fraud in NBP branch in Bangladesh. NBP authorities assured the Senate body that the necessary legal action had been initiated against the responsible. On this occasion, NBP President Syed Iqbal Ashraf said his bank had opened 37 branches in 2015 and more branches would be opened that year in different areas of the country.