Ex-MD Bank of Khyber gets Rs5.6m as ‘reward for services’

PESHAWAR: The dispute between the Bank of Khyber (BoK) management and provincial finance minister is a practical manifestation of the maxim ‘the ill befalls the poor’ as ex-managing director (MD) got Rs5.6 million as ‘reward’ while five employees of the bank dismissed during the row re still running from pillar to post for justice.

It goes without saying that the row between the Jamaat-e-Islami-affiliated Finance Minister Muzafar Sayyid and managing director of the bank Shamsul Qayyum had been a stigma for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led coalition government for the last one and half year. The dispute that erupted after an interview of the minister on April 14, 2016 to an English-language daily remained in the media one way or the other since then.

The issue was blown to all possible limits when the interview was followed by an advertisement in the media on April 16 by the BoK management accusing the minister of misusing the bank’s resources for political purposes.

The minister even questioned the appointment of the ex-MD and his party time and time again threatened to quit the coalition government if Shamsul Qayyum was not removed.

The minister and the bank’s MD continued to blame each other for the wrongdoings in the bank affairs. It also pitched the bureaucracy running the BoK’s affairs and the finance minister against each other.

A cabinet committee led by former senior minister Sikandar Sherpao and parliamentary committee led by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak were constituted to fix responsibility in the matter.