I AM an account holder of a branch of the National Bank of Pakistan. It is run fairly efficiently, and I have had no complaints.

The process has been simple: I would hand in my cheque at a counter, the man would process it in minutes, and I would take the cheque to the next counter where the teller would give me the money in a couple of minutes.

Over a fortnight, the process has been changed. The same man posts the cheque and is also the teller. When I went there last time, there was a long queue and I just couldn’t understand what the big deal was and why one man was being called upon to do both the jobs.

I talked to the manager, who appeared highly frustrated. He said he was fed up with the NBP headquarters’ orders that the same man should clear the cheque and make payment. This was, he said, known to be ‘core banking’.

If this is ‘core banking’, we rather not have it. Of what use is it when it wastes the client’s time?

JAMEEL MUKHTAR Karachi

Opinion

Editorial

Ties with Tehran
Updated 24 Apr, 2024

Ties with Tehran

Tomorrow, if ties between Washington and Beijing nosedive, and the US asks Pakistan to reconsider CPEC, will we comply?
Working together
24 Apr, 2024

Working together

PAKISTAN’S democracy seems adrift, and no one understands this better than our politicians. The system has gone...
Farmers’ anxiety
24 Apr, 2024

Farmers’ anxiety

WHEAT prices in Punjab have plummeted far below the minimum support price owing to a bumper harvest, reckless...
By-election trends
Updated 23 Apr, 2024

By-election trends

Unless the culture of violence and rigging is rooted out, the credibility of the electoral process in Pakistan will continue to remain under a cloud.
Privatising PIA
23 Apr, 2024

Privatising PIA

FINANCE Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s reaffirmation that the process of disinvestment of the loss-making national...
Suffering in captivity
23 Apr, 2024

Suffering in captivity

YET another animal — a lioness — is critically ill at the Karachi Zoo. The feline, emaciated and barely able to...