National Bank: Benevolent fund raise awaits board approval

Petitioner says bank is reluctant to give relief to its retired employees.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday adjourned till first week of September the hearing of a petition seeking compliance of an earlier LHC order to raise benevolent funds payments to retired employees of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP).

On Friday an NBP representative told the court that the matter had been placed before the board of directors and that the revised policy would be implemented following its approval from the directors.

The petition has been filed by Kokab Iqbal, a retired NBP employee. Iqbal complained that despite LHC orders on January 11, 2011, the NBP president had not raised the payments. Iqbal said that Railways and a few others departments had raised benevolent fund payments to its retired employees up to Rs4,000. He said that the NBP authorities were reluctant to give them the same relief.

He asked the judge to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the NBP president for not complying with court orders.  He also requested the court to pass an order to the bank to raise their payments to at least Rs4,000.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2011.