The administration of the Bank of Punjab (BoP) has rejected the allegations levelled by Sheikh Haris Afzal of the Haris Steel Mills, saying the BoP and its officials reserved the right to take appropriate legal action against baseless arguments made by the accused. Ahmad Razi Ghazali said on behalf of the BoP and its officials concerned that the bank wanted to clarify baseless allegations against its officials or any other functionary, including its lawyer Khawaja Haris.
The BoP spokesman said all vehicles confiscated from the Haris Group were disposed of by an independent salvage committee constituted by the Supreme Court (SC). “No vehicle of Haris Group is, or has ever been, in use of any bank official and the allegations levelled by Haris to this effect are totally baseless. The BoP and its officials reserve the right to take appropriate legal action against such accusations,” Ahmad said.
The BoP spokesman said the Haris Group owed Rs 8.403 billion to the BoP on account of principal and Rs 4.806 billion on account of the mark-up. Out of the said liability of Rs 13.209 billion, the bank had so far recovered Rs 2,375 million in cash. In addition, various assets belonging to Haris Group’s sponsors had been confiscated as a result of a plea bargain between the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Haris Group. Ahmad said the salvage committee constituted by the SC was disposing of the seized assets, worth approximately Rs 1.878 billion. The group was responsible for paying the remaining liability to the bank, the spokesman said.
Shiekh Haris had said the group’s liabilities had undergone a “fraudulent restructuring” carried out in connivance with the former management and ex-employees of the bank. Rejecting the statement, Ahmad said Haris Group had not given any banking business to the BoP but had caused huge financial losses by way of fraudulent financing obtained from the bank. “The group has never been in a true banking relationship with us, rather it has defrauded the bank and all its stakeholders by cunning and deceitful dealings,” said the spokesman. Ahmad said the BoP had been operating under the State Bank of Pakistan’s prescribed rules for corporate governance without interference from any quarters and was not involved in any kind of harassment of the group and or its sponsors. He said there was no interference from Punjab government officials, and the bank and its board was making independent decisions according to the rules and regulations applicable to banking companies.
With regards to the sale of assets for the recovery of defaulted liability, Ahmad said the salvage committee constituted by the SC with the consent of Haris Group had been carrying out sales of the assets without any direct or indirect involvement of the BoP, in the most transparent manner possible.
