KARACHI, April 20: Condem-ning the alleged ‘irresponsible behaviour’ of a private bank on the pretext of recovery of dues, a senior faculty member of the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) and office-bearers of the Pakistan Medical Association, Karachi, have urged the chief justice of the Sindh High Court to order action against the bank officials involved.

Narrating his ordeal to newsmen at a press conference held at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday, an associate professor of the DUHS, Dr Mohammad Umer Farooq, said that he had acquired a car through the financing facility offered by a local private bank. The senior professor said that he had repaid all the bank’s dues in August 2007 without fail.

Dr Farooq said it was strange that despite payment of the dues, suddenly he was being chased by a group of young men riding motorcycles and cars during the last six days.

He said that the young men, who were later identified as members of the recovery team of the bank by some of their senior officials, had tried to trap him twice, once in Nazimabad and then outside a private hospital in a manner similar to those of the kidnappers or other criminals. Their identities were disclosed on April 18, he said, adding that being a responsible citizen of the country he would never approve of such coercive methods employed by any financial institution for the recovery of its outstanding dues.

He said that on the second occasion when he was being chased by the recovery officials to a private hospital, one of the staff members of the health facility heard them referring to the bank while talking to someone over the phone. “That gave me a clue and prompted me to contact the relevant bank to seek clarification”, he said.

Dr Farooq said that upon contacting the senior officials of the bank, Nazeer Merkhand, and Zaheer Soomro, it dawned on him that he was being chased and harassed by the members of the bank’s recovery team by mistake. The bank officials, he said, assured him that he would not be chased by any of their team members again and it was a result of some misunderstanding.

Criticising the mafia-style working of the bank officials, Dr Farooq termed it licentious even if it was exercised against any genuine defaulter.

He urged the chief justice of the Sindh High Court to take notice of the incident and the overall working style of the recovery officials of various banks and other financial institutions. Deploring the situation, he said that if things continued in this manner, qualified professionals and other civilised citizens like him would be left with no choice but to leave the country so as to avoid such incidents.

Leaders of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Karachi, Dr Samrina Hashmi, Dr Habibur Rehman Soomro and Dr Aziz Khan Tank condemned the disgusting behaviour of the bank towards it clients. They were of the view that in case of a default on part of any client, a bank or any other financial institution must inform a defaulter by sending him/her notices and should pursue the matter abiding by the rules and regulations.

They urged the president, prime minister, Sindh governor and chief minister to take strong notice of such incidents and unlawful practices, which could not be justified at any stage, particularly when anti-social elements were having a field day in the city and society as a whole was experiencing a surge in street crime.

The PMA office-bearers said that the bank and its employees acted no less than vandals and their actions could not be justified morally or legally.

They said it was high time that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Banking Council of Pakistan (BCP) intervened to check these actions on part of various banks and above all to control such unbridled bank employees.