12 January 2004	Monday	19 Ziqa'ad 1424

LAHORE, Jan 11: The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) has alleged irregularities in the privatization of the Habib Bank Ltd.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, deputy information secretary Munir Ahmad Khan said the second biggest bank of the country was privatized without even giving reserve price before the bidding process.

Smelling a rat in the swift acceptance of the Agha Khan Foundation's over Rs22 billion bid, he said the Privatization Board and the cabinet committee approved the deal within minutes the same day notwithstanding a Canadian company's offer of Rs35 billion for the bank.

He recalled that during the last Nawaz Sharif era, the bank's reserve price had been set at Rs60 billion. Requesting the NAB to immediately initiate a probe into the Rs17 billion loss to the national exchequer caused by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, Hafeez Sheikh, Zakir Mahmood (HBL president, and his brother Shakir Mahmood, the ARD leader asked the government to defer the issuance of final letter for the bank's sell-off until the NAB report was released.

He also demanded discussion on the financial deal in parliament, besides immediately terminating the services of Shaukat Aziz, Hafeez Sheikh and Zakir Mahmood so that they could not influence the investigation.

Mr Khan alleged that a decision to sell the bank to the Foundation had been taken much before bidding during meetings between officials of Pakistan and the Foundation at Geneva and in the country.

He said the government pumped around Rs30 billion cash into the bank, handed over 69 sick units financed by the bank to the CIRC, and closed down its 282 branches besides sacking 4,000 of its employees to benefit the buyer.

He feared the closure of 500 more bank branches and termination of services of 10,000 staff in the near future. Mr Khan was also critical of the instalment facility offered to the Foundation for the payment of the bid money.

He claimed that had the bank been privatized in a transparent manner through stock exchanges, it could have fetched at least Rs40 billion.