NBP’s former president

The high court extended the protective pre-arrest bail of a former president of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Syed Ali Raza, in a National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) inquiry into an 18-billion-rupee Bangladesh branch scam.

Raza had moved court to obtain protective bail in connection with a NAB call-up notice over losses of Rs18 billion allegedly caused to the national exchequer by some officers of the bank’s Bangladesh operations.

According to NAB, the NBP Bangladesh branch gave loans of $185 million without securing collaterals from 2001 to 2013, and in certain cases, it released securities without recovering the loans. 

NAB authorised investigations into the conduct of the NBP officers accused of abusing their powers in the processing and sanctioning of credit limits, wilfully avoiding proper valuation of securities offered by borrowers and causing losses to the tune of $185 million. 

The court extended the protective bail of the applicant on the request of the counsel till July 31 and directed the counsel to argue over the bail application at the next hearing.