KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday reserved its verdict on the bail applications of National Bank of Pakistan’s officers allegedly involved in a Rs18 billion corruption scam in the bank’s Bangladesh branch.
Petitioners Zubair Ahmed, Imran Butt and others were booked by the National Accountability Bureau along with former NBP president Syed Ali Raza in the corruption reference. According to the anti-graft agency, the bank’s branch in Bangladesh gave loans valuing $185 million without securing collateral from the years 2001 to 2013 and, in certain cases, the branch released securities without even recovering the loans.
The anti-corruption body also authorised the investigations into the conduct of the NBP former president accused of abusing his powers in the processing and sanctioning of the credit limits, wilfully avoiding proper valuation of securities offered by borrowers and causing losses of US$185 million to the national exchequer.
NAB alleged that the 2009 audit report of the NBP had exposed irregularities and the State Bank of Pakistan had also expressed reservations on the financial affairs of the bank, adding that former president Syed Ali Raza, NBP officials, including Zubair Ahmed, Tahir Yaqoob, Imran Butt, Ibrar Beg, Imran Ghani, and some Bangladeshi citizens were also involved in the scam. The anti-graft body’s counsel also submitted the list of doctors of different hospitals for constitution of the board for medical examination of ex-president Ali Raza.
