While giving a briefing on Rs 1.5 billion financial fraud committed from the account of abandoned properties, the officials of Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) have stated that there is positive progress in the case and Rs 260 million have been recovered while two officials who are allegedly found involved in the scam have been arrested. The committee also discussed the budget of Economic Affairs, Finance and Revenue Divisions. The committee was also stated that measures have been put in place to avert such scams in future.
The committee chairman stated that Sindh chief minister has also been complaining that the federal government is not providing funds for K-4 project while Senator Saud Majeed remarked that the funds are allocated for provinces in every budget, however, these are not released to them.
While briefing the committee on the alleged scam of HBL, officials of State Bank of Pakistan stated that the Rs 12 billion scam did not take place, however, HBL suffered a loss of Rs 33 million after an official of the bank tried to increase the shares of the bank artificially. The meeting was informed that Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) is investigating the matter. The committee also reviewed 162 clauses of the Companies Bill, 2017, which has been passed by the National Assembly. The meeting decided that after completing the review of the bill, a meeting of the committee would also be held in Lahore to take viewpoints of the chambers of commerce of Gujranwala, Sialkot, Faisalabad and Lahore.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017