The affairs of the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) are being run strictly in accordance with the statutes and regulations laid down by the State Bank of Pakistan. A press handout quoted the bank’s spokesperson as saying that periodic inspections were made and the bank’s management followed and adhered to observations made by the central bank, which was its regulatory authority.
The statement stated that ZTBL’s Board of Directors had been constituted by the federal government vide a notification dated June 14, 2010 after going through a strict clearance procedure under Fit & Proper Test Criteria carried out by the SBP. The bank’s non-executive directors did not draw any salary from the Bank, the handout said. The Board played a vital role in providing necessary support to make ZTBL a robust organisation which was evident from the bank’s profitability. The press release said that over the past four years, the bank earned an aggregate net profit of more than Rs 11 billion during the tenure of this board.
The bank’s spokesperson also said that ZTBL had not waived any loans on the instructions of Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf or any other member of the Board of Directors. The spokesperson also said that it was also not true that beneficiaries of this waiver were mostly influential person having relations with the former president. The bank clarified that the policy for writing off remission of the Bank was confined to stuck-up loans and was for all eligible borrowers as per criteria mentioned therein. “This is not true that this policy mainly benefited customers having loans of more than Rs 1 million. In fact, major beneficiaries of write off/remission policy are small farmers.-PR
