KARACHI: I went to the II Chundrigar Road Branch of a private commercial bank on November 24 to pay a utility bill. At the cash counter, I was quite shocked to see the cashier talking on a mobile phone — especially since the branch had a big sign warning everyone not to use a mobile phone.
I paid my bill and raised the issue with the branch manager, who also happened to be using his mobile phone. I eventually managed to speak to the bank official who, as expected, defended his staffer saying that employees could use their cellphones for ‘emergency calls’.
I then asked him that how could he, as branch manager, determine whether an employee who was using a mobile phone has an ‘emergency call’ or otherwise. Such a cavalier attitude by a bank’s senior management can not only put the lives of bank customers at risk, it surely violates the organisation’s own rules. It is perhaps due to this kind of attitude, which must be prevalent in other banks as well, that the city has seen over a dozen bank robberies so far this year.
Adnan Majid
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2011.
