PESHAWAR, Aug 25: People affected by the winding up of the Islamic Investment Bank (IIB) have sought government’s help to get their money back. Mohammad Riaz Afridi, secretary of the Council of Afectees of IIB, in a written appeal said that 4,335 depositors in the NWFP, Sindh and the Punjab, had been suffering since April 2005 but no action had been taken by the government for recovery of their hard-earned money from owners of the IIB.

The government, he said, should revive the bank as its current financial condition did not warrant its closure. The government should purchase 75 per cent shares of the bank and revive it or, alternatively, absorb or sale it to the Habib Bank, the United Bank, the Muslim Commercial Bank or any other sound financial institution to safeguard the interests of depositors, Mr Afridi said.

The IIB was established in June 1991 as a public limited company and remained under the control of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) till 2002 and when it was placed within the ambit of the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

Some 4,335 people including 3,464 from the NWFP and 871 from the Punjab and Sindh, deposited their savings totalling Rs920 million with the IIB but the bank, according to the depositors, was placed in winding-up process by the SECP just because it was short of Rs600 million.

Mr Afridi said that Justice Jehanzed Rahim of the Peshawar High Court Peshawar on May 29, 2006 had dismissed a plea of the SECP for winding-up of the IIB.

He said in view of this decision the government should revive it and help in early payment to the depositors.