THIS is apropos of letters by Fatima Siddiqui and Rafique Umer concerning Prize Bond draws (April 6 and April 12).

To respond to the issues raised in the above-mentioned letters, it is submitted that 20 copies of handout/draw result of prize bonds are supplied to the media organisations authorised by the Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS), Islamabad, in their draw letter after completion of draw process by the SBP Banking Services Corporation (SBP BSC) offices.

As far as the printing of the draw results in leading newspapers is concerned, it may be pointed out that this is the responsibility of CDNS, being the owner of the Prize Bonds Scheme.

The prize bond winning lists available in the market are published by different agents/brokers who are not the authorised dealers of the government of Pakistan.

Therefore, the claim lodged by the applicant on the basis of these lists cannot be claimed as a matter of right.

However, the prize claims lodged are entertained/honoured if the number of the winning prize bond appears in the lists issued by the State Bank and the CDNS. The authorised list of the draw result is available on the websites of the SBP and the CDNS.

It is clarified that according to the official draw result of Rs15,000, the prize bond draw number 42 announced by the Draw Committee and also available on the websites of CDNS and SBP, the three numbers of the second prize of Rs10 million are in ascending order and the third number mentioned therein as 530632 is correct.

It may be pointed out that as per Rule 14 of Prize Bonds Rules, 1999, a bond winning prize money of Rs10,000 or more shall be retained by the SBP BSC offices for a period of six years from the date of the draw and the holder of the bond shall be paid the face value of such bond along with the prize money.

Since the draw is held under the system of single common draw where each series sold preceding two months of the draw participate in the draw. Hence, the same number could be declared again successful being common in each series.

SYED WASIMUDDIN

Chief Spokesman
State Bank of Pakistan
Karachi