Bahbood ‘saving certificates are especially meant for pensioners who retire from services after reaching the age of superannuation. However, the ordeal these pensioners have to pass through for collecting their monthly profit is something to be experienced in order to believe it. Just imagine a 75-year old person and suffering from more than one ailments who has to wait for more than five hours every month at one of these NSS centres. I myself went to one of these centres in Gulshan-i-Iqbal last Monday to collect my profit and to get my documents amended for receiving higher return on these certificates as announced by the government some two months ago.

I was there by 9.30 a.m. and got a token marked 64. All the seats were occupied and a number of men and women standing. For a moment I thought about leaving the place and get my other odd jobs done before my turn comes. But I saw a notice saying that if a recipient was not present when his number was called, he will have to obtain a fresh number.

More than five hours later when my number was announced, I rushed to the counter. That was the time when light had gone out and I made my way through semi-darkness. The clerk shoved my cheque book asking me to sign on it. When I was signing he muttered to effect that I have to come again after a week or so in order to get my documents amended.

When I wanted to know something but before I could open my month, he had slipped my cheque book towards the cashier who made the payment. None of the clerk was prepared to have even a look at me. There were two ladies who wanted to know something about the payments made to them. However none of three clerks who were over-busy had any time to reply any question from any account-holder.

In the midst of these hurryings, two lady officers doing almost nothing kept sitting on their chairs as if they were not a part of what was going on. They even kept silent when some customers raised their voices to register their complaints. No account holder was allowed to go near them. A security guard holding a gun and wearing a menacing look listened to the complaints and made replies in his own way. In fact, there was no one to guide or answer any quarry of customers who had come there just to know about something.. The atmosphere was so stuffy that an old lady fainted there. Only other ladies sitting beside her attended her. In such circumstances it would be highly foolish to complain that there was no drinking water or any wash room available for customers.

Will the Central Directorate of the National Savings (CDNS) please look into the matter and provide some relief to their customers who go there to be ‘served’ and not to get humiliated and tortured.

An account holder Karachi