KARACHI, April 13: Habib Bank officers have demanded that in view of the ever-increasing inflation, their salaries and other benefits be enhanced.

The demands were made by Khalid Illyas and M. A. Saeed, representatives of the Habib Bank Officers Federation, at a press conference held at the Press Club on Friday.

They said the bank had earned a profit of over Rs4.2 billion, but it was paying insufficient salaries and benefits to its officers.

They said that while the officers were being exploited, the bank was giving unprecedented raises amounting to hundreds of thousands of rupees a year to its executives.

They said that those employees who had spent over 10 years in one grade should be promoted and the importance of the appraisal system, for its limitations, should be minimized.

The other demands put forward by the representatives were: raise be given to all the officers across the board and condition of graduation for promotion up to grade 1 be waived off; loans up to Rs 400,000 be made mark-up free; life-style finance which being given by the bank to the customers be provided to the employees; retirement benefits be calculated according to the old formula; ceiling of petrol be enhanced by 20 litres and the house rent allowance be increased by five per cent.

They said their federation had decided to hold general body meetings all over the country as well as in Azad Kashmir to discuss the issues and formulate the future line of action on April 16.

Gulfaraz A. Khan also spoke.