Bank robberies
There is a reason most banks are robbed in connivance with those who are entrusted to protect them.
That a bank was robbed in Karachi is no longer a surprise. In just this year alone, there have been 17 such incidents, most of them carried out, unsurprisingly, with inside help. On November 30, the target was a branch of a private commercial bank in Nazimabad, where bandits made off with over five million rupees. A week earlier, another private bank was hit and the loot was Rs4 million. Just this month alone, there have been four robberies of banks and their cash vans for a total theft of just under Rs30 million. This raises an obvious question: just how did it become so easy to rob banks? The answer lies in security, or its lack thereof. There is a reason most banks are robbed in connivance with those who are entrusted to protect them. The security guards are usually hired from private companies, who pay them meagre salaries, make them work long hours and rarely provide life insurance. That they then go on to rob the banks they are meant to guard with their lives, should not come as a shock. Since the banks themselves are insured against theft, this gives them little incentive to ensure that their guards are paid a wage consummate to the level of risk they face daily in their jobs.
But the government should be taking an interest in this. We have been told that holding up banks is an important fundraising method for militant groups. If that is indeed the case, then the security of banks is a matter of national security. When millions of rupees are being added to the coffers of the Taliban, the state must act. Partly, they can do this by making sure insurance companies don’t pay out claims when the banks have been cutting corners by not following standard procedures, such as keeping two armed guards on duty at all times. Legislation can also be passed making it mandatory to pay a decent wage to security guards and providing them with life insurance. Until this is done, our banks will remain insecure and criminals, or even worse militants, will be gorging themselves at the expense of financial institutions.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2011.
But the government should be taking an interest in this. We have been told that holding up banks is an important fundraising method for militant groups. If that is indeed the case, then the security of banks is a matter of national security. When millions of rupees are being added to the coffers of the Taliban, the state must act. Partly, they can do this by making sure insurance companies don’t pay out claims when the banks have been cutting corners by not following standard procedures, such as keeping two armed guards on duty at all times. Legislation can also be passed making it mandatory to pay a decent wage to security guards and providing them with life insurance. Until this is done, our banks will remain insecure and criminals, or even worse militants, will be gorging themselves at the expense of financial institutions.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2011.