SBP says fake TDRs meant to malign parliamentarians

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan on Thursday said no wrongdoing is found against senior legislators in an investigation into the issuance of huge amounts of term deposit receipts (TDRs) from SME Bank.

The central bank issued statement in response to media reports and complaint received from secretary to the Speaker national Assemble Sardar Ayaz Sadiq regarding issuance of term deposit receipts worth huge amount in the name of certain parliamentarians.

The central bank received complaint against chairman Senate, Raza Rabbani, leader of opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, leader of opposition in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan and member National Assembly Maulana Fazal Ur Rehman

“Initial results reveal that no such TDRs have been issued by the SME Bank nor any of these parliamentarians have any deposit account with the said bank,” the SBP statement said.  “It is clarified that the bank issues TDRs only for those of its customers who already have a deposit account with the said bank.”

Senior parliamentarians on Wednesday received fake bank receipts worth millions of rupees. The speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq wrote a letter to the central bank to immediately investigate the issue.  The speaker’s office was later informed by the central bank that the transaction was bogus.

The central bank statement said it “appears that the TDRs have been issued using counterfeit or stolen TDR forms from the bank by some unscrupulous elements to malign the parliamentarians.”

“Further investigations in the matter are underway and will be shared in due course, it added.  The SME Bank is also taking up the matter with the relevant law enforcement agency for further investigation.