PESHAWAR: The board of directors of the Bank of Khyber met on August 18 to review the performance of the bank for the first six months of year 2017. The board showed satisfaction over the Banks achievements and noted that the bank had performed well in comparison with other banks. The board noted that as per the financial statements duly audited by the chartered accountant firm of Grant Thornton; the bank’s deposits had reached Rs 152 billion, advances have shown growth of 78% reaching Rs 57 billion and total assets were Rs 262 billion. The bank had earned profit after tax of Rs 939 million up to June 2017. However, the board showed concern that in spite of the bank’s stable and growing performance, certain elements were bent upon tarnishing the image of the bank for political point scoring. The board observed that the allegations being levelled against the bank, the provincial government and the management were far from the truth and based on mala fide intentions. The board noted with concern that the allegations made by Ziaullah Afridi in his press conference of August 15 and observed that the allegations were baseless and meant to malign the government and the bank. In regards to appointment of the managing director it was clarified that the MD was selected by a selection committee under a transparent process and was not appointed by the chief minister. It was pointed out that appointment of the MD is done under Section 12 of the BOK Act 1999 and neither CM nor Finance Minister has any powers in this regard. The board observed that upon instructions of the government all record of appointments in the bank for the last several years had been probed and it was found that appointments had been made according to the banks service rules and on merit. In regards to loans outside the province it was clarified that the bank being a commercial bank operating all over Pakistan lends to good projects all over the country, however the preference of the bank is to lend in the province and the majority of the bank’s branches are located in KP. Published in Daily Times, August 22nd 2017.