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Banks should

help expatriates

with devotion, says

Mohtasib

ISLAMABAD: Wafaqi Mohtasib, Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Khan has exhorted functionaries of Pakistani banks operating abroad to serve their countrymen sincerely and devotedly. The fee they charge their account holders should be service-oriented rather than arbitrary or exclusively profit motivated.

Referring to a complaint addressed to him by Pakistani expatriates currently employed in Bahrain that the local UBL branch had charged BD 5 from account holders under the cover of ATM fee, the Wafaqi Mohtasib advised the bank management that "service to the community should be upper most in their minds".

This would earn them respect and appreciation of the Pakistani community and greatly improve their public image, he said.

Pakistani expatriates Malik Mushtaq Ahmed, Mohammad Azam and Zaheer Ahmed had moved a complaint to the Mohtasib against discrimination in refund of the imposed fee to overseas Pakistanis by the bank.

While disposing of the complaint, the Wafaqi Mohtasib noted that transfers and postings of staff required at the overseas offices, government offices and banks without consideration of merit, bureaucratic and non-professional attitude of officers having no community welfare background and their aloofness from expatriates labour mainly accounted for public complaints with regard to their performance.

He recommended that Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) might be re-organised so as to provide necessary facilities to the families of overseas Pakistanis residing in Pakistan.

He was also of the view that representation of overseas Pakistanis in various institutions like Board of Investment and Export Promotion Bureau as well as creation of a separate free trade zone for overseas Pakistanis on lines similar to Jabal-e-Ali Industrial Free Zone, Dubai could result in boosting investment and promoting Pakistan's economic interests.

The Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat have forwarded its recommendations to the ministers for Finance, Commerce, Labour and Overseas Pakistanis and Foreign Affairs for appropriate action.ÑAPP