VEHARI, Sept 8: Scores of people have protested against what they termed 'delaying tactics' of the Punjab Bank Vehari branch officials in payment of prize money to them.

Talking to Dawn here on Wednesday, a woman of Sharqi Colony said that she won a prize of Rs10,000. She said she had been visiting the bank branch for the last 15 days, but the bank officials were not telling her the exact date of payment.

When contacted, branch manager Muhammad Javed said the bank officials had received copies of the national identity cards (NICs) and ticket numbers from all the prize winners and sent those to Lahore for verification.

The bank would get the money after confirmation from the head office, he said. However, Mr Javed did not mention the time period in this regard. According to another bank employee, about one to two months would be required for completion of this process.