ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: The employees of Zarai Taraqiati Bank (ZTBL) have protested against the management’s decision to send them on forced Leave Preparatory to Retirement (LRP) at the age of fifty-seven-and-a-half years. They have also threatened to observe a strike if the bank management went ahead with its plan.

The National Assembly standing committee on economic affairs has also realized the gravity of the situation and has decided to bring the whole issue into the notice of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

One of the members of the standing committee told Online that the matter would be taken up in the next meeting.

Sources said ZTBL president Rashid Akhtar Chughtai was pursuing a retrenchment plan on the pressure of Asian Development Bank.