PESHAWAR, July 22: A five-member NWFP government team led by Senior Minister Sirajul Haq is due to leave for Germany on Wednesday to discuss the Bank of Khyber’s affairs with a monetary institution, DEG, which holds its 13 per cent equity share.

Sources told Dawn that the bank’s intended privatization, equity partnership, introduction of Islamic banking and other “contentious” issues would come under discussion.

“There is no prescribed agenda of the meeting,” said an official who will leave for Cologne with the delegation.

The official claimed that the team had been invited by the German development finance institution but other sources contended that  the visit was being undertaken at the behest of a “strong man” of the provincial government to settle some disputes with the DEG.

The minister, when contacted, said: “We would hold discussions to protect the rights and serve the interest of the province.”

He said contacts would be established with donor agencies to persuade them to provide assistance to the provincial government for the health, education and water sectors.

However, sources said: “The most important purpose of the visit is to  settle some contentious issues hampering the working relationship with the DEG.”

The visit is in contradiction with the NWFP government’s policy  against foreign trips of government functionaries and ministers. Jamaat-i-Islami’s Senator Khursheed Ahmed, currently in London, would also join the delegation. The team, on its way to Germany, was scheduled to meet the authorities of an institute of banking in London, one of its members said.

It has been learnt that authorities concerned had objected to the inclusion of an aide of the senior minister in the team. “The bank management provided a copy of a notification whereby Mr Asghar had been appointed coordinator, Islamic banking in March,” said the sources.