PESHAWAR, Dec 20: The State Bank of Pakistan’s notice to its employees to vacate the official accommodation in the State Bank Colony (SBC) by December 31, has caused a wave of unrest among hundreds of families likely to get displaced, according to sources

“The SBP has asked its employees to vacate the houses by December 31, causing immense unrest among those likely to get disturbed,” said an employee who has been living in the SBP’s colony, located in Dabgari Gardens, for the last 30 years.

Employees told Dawn that the SBP had built the colony over a land measuring 65 kanals in 1964. The bank withdrew the facilities in 1997 and they had been paying for the maintenance, security, electricity and gas bills since then. But now, the authorities had issued notices asking the occupants to vacate the residential quarters.

“A bank sells its properties when it becomes bankrupt. But there is apparently no such situation and the SBP is earning,” an employee said. According to them, they had already suffered a great deal following the turning of the SBP’s branches into corporations one year ago.

“Except for the head office in Karachi, all the other branches have become corporations and the employees’ strength had already declined from 10,000 to 7,000, because of the rightsizing and downsizing,” said an employee.

The SBP colony had a total of 80 residential quarters categorized as A,B, C and D type, which are allotted to the employees on the basis of their ranks. They revealed that 43 quarters had been lying unoccupied since 1997, which had caused immense harm to these units.

The employees noted that the central bank had spent an amount of Rs6,75,000 on laying new gas pipelines a few months ago, it was beyond comprehension why it now has served notice on the occupants of its quarters to vacate them.

According to the bank’s rules, the facilities extended to the employees could not be withdrawn, they said, and added that the Cantonment Board, Peshawar, had given the land for construction of the staff colony, which could not be sold.

Citing a decision taken by the SBP board, they said the bank could not sell its property. But if the situation so arises, it should sell it to its employees, they added.

They said the bank’s decision to sell the colony was also badly affecting their performance. Most of the employees, be they peons or officers, belonged to remote areas of the province and depriving them of residential facilities, would hit them hard.

According to him, the bank had already sold its colonies in Karachi and Quetta at throwaway prices, and was now bent upon selling Peshawar’s colony as well.

Employees have been running from pillar to post to get the decision reversed, but owing to the bank’s recent record, they are also convinced that finally, they had to toe the administration’s line and vacate the colony.

They have sent a letter to the chief manager of the SBP’s Peshawar branch on Dec 19, asking him to defer the decision till Dec 31, so that their children could complete the ongoing session in the school located in the colony.