June 12, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 07, 1429

KARACHI, June 11: The State Bank of Pakistan has recently recruited some people on high salary packages on a contract basis while the permanent employees continue to get lesser remuneration, which is creating unrest among them, reliable sources told Dawn here on Wednesday.

The sources said in a situation where one of the senior-most directors of the bank was getting approximately Rs130,000 a month, the SBP appointed a director on a two-year contract by offering him a monthly package of over Rs425,000 plus benefits. Besides the high salary, they said, he was going to have a house loan of over Rs25 million on interest-free terms. The amount was even more than his total salary for the entire period of the contract, which would be Rs9 million roughly, added the sources.

The sources said that when the bank extended house loan facility to its employees, the instalments were normally calculated till the date of their retirement. If the facility has to be extended to an employee appointed on a two-year contract, the loan’s recovery should have been scheduled in two years time when his contract expires.

However, in his case the house building advance would be repayable in equal monthly instalments to be calculated from the date of first reimbursement until the borrower turns 60, though one of the conditions permit him to settle all the arrears before the last day in service.

The sources said this was not the only case of high salary package given to an employee and if a probe was instituted, it would be revealed that there were various other employees hired on hefty packages. The discrepancies in remuneration were creating unrest among the permanent staffers of the bank, they added.