KARACHI, July 26: The prize award ceremony of the Institute of Bankers Pakistan held on Saturday proved to be a unique event where upcoming young bankers received medals and certificates on their performance in banking diploma examinations, the retired and senior bankers got recognition of their life-long services.

Dr Ishrat Hussain, governor, State Bank of Pakistan, who presided over the prize award ceremony, paid rich tributes to the old crop of bankers who laid the foundation of banking industry in Pakistan.

Exactly a decade before, in late July 1993 the former State Bank Governor Dr Mohammad Yaqub in his very first public appearance after being appointed as the central bank chief had called Pakistani bankers “inefficient and corrupt”. He had made these remarks at the same place. The occasion too was same, prize distribution ceremony.

Dr Yaqub used to come down heavily on the bankers on different occasions after IBP’s meeting in late July 1993. He had blamed Pakistani bankers for all the ills that afflict Pakistani banking system including loan defaults, write-offs and that they were wilful tools of the governments of the day. That Dr Yaqub is the only State Bank governor who presented a supplementary budget on behalf of the government of the day is another story.

Tajammul Hussain presided over the United Bank and Habib Bank before chairing over Pakistan Banking Council. He then went on to become the president of Bank of Punjab. He was invited on Friday to speak on behalf of all the retired and senior bankers.

He recognized Abdul Jabbar Khan, his hostel mate in Karachi who rose to become President of National Bank of Pakistan. Kassem Parekh was also there. Parekh is the only banker who presided a commercial bank, chaired Pakistan Banking Council and then became Governor of State Bank of Pakistan. There were Chowdhry Sajjad, M.A. Bukhari, Shafi Arshad and many others.

Tajammul called all his colleagues and friends of banking industry as “founding fathers of banking industry in Pakistan”. Banking, according to him took a turn to worse in decade of nineties. First it was BCCI debacle in 1992 and then political intervention for loans and appointments in nineties.

None spoke of the decade of eighties when angels governed the country, framed the policies and ran banking system. Loan default and loan write-off were unknown in Pakistan till eighties. Government borrowed heavily from banks at rate of 0.5 to 6 per cent to finance budgetary deficit during decade of eighties. Businessmen were pampered through generous loans from banks. A World Bank report in 1988 had said that hardly three dozen business groups take up more than 50 per cent of bank loans. They can make and unmake the banking system in Pakistan. H.U. Baig Committe came out with recommendations to write off and restructure loans. Dr Mahbubul Haq in his 1988 budget speech blamed Junejo government of writing off Rs5 billion loans.

Loan default and write-offs are now normal integral part of banking system, said Dr Ishrat.

Uzma Awan, a young lady stood out as a unique character on Friday. She is a non-banker and topped the list of successful candidates of banking diploma examination in her first appearance. She got four prizes in all for her performance.