Daily Times

The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) on Thursday admonished the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) senior officials for increasing their salaries, but not of their subordinates. A two-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), took up for hearing the SBP’s appeal against the Islamabad High Court’s decision on the golden handshake scheme. Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmad, on the occasion, remarked that the entire administration of the bank should be sacked. “The SBP suffered the loss of billions of rupees, and that was because of the ‘incompetence’ of its administration,” the CJP said, and added, “It gives a lot of pain to us when such incidents are reported. It is so unfortunate that senior officials, drawing hefty salaries, destroy an organisation.” When Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi asked counsel for the SBP as to how much money the bank had to pay afterwards, the latter replied the amount stood at Rs2 billion. Later, admitting the SBP’s petition for hearing, the CJP remarked that now the petition would be taken up for hearing after six months.