He is among the 5,500 employees of the bank, including officers of senior grades, who were sacked on Oct 12, 1997 in the Nawaz government as punishment for getting promotion during the second tenure of People’s Party’s government in 1994.
The bank management did not even offer them voluntarily retirement.
Gul Mohammad got the shock of his life when an official from the head office asked him to sign a letter as he arrived in the bank on Oct 12, 1997.
Without prior warning and in a surreptitious manner, the management had fired him in seconds. Gul Mohammed had no other option but to sign the letter and go back home silently.
Father of two boys and five girls and at the middle of his career it was very difficult for him to make a decision about his future. He had pinned hopes on the funds he was supposed receive from the bank including provident fund but he received the second shock when he was told that the bank had adjusted loans he had obtained during service against his funds against Rs700,000 funds.
Finally, he received just Rs125,000, which were almost no help in improving his condition. Unfortunately, he failed to land a good job and was so hard pressed for money that he had to accept the job of a waiter at a small restaurant to feed his family and the family of his dead brother.
The bank’s management deducted and adjusted entire loan amount and taxes at the time of retrenchment in violation of the service rules and almost all the sacked officials received peanuts in the end.
Secondly, the bank did offer pension to a number of employees having more than 25 years of service but freezed the amount at the rate, which was paid in 1997. Surprisingly, they were getting the same amount even after passage of almost 11 years, which they had received at the time of retrenchment with no increases despite several increments announced by former governments.
Late Benazir Bhutto had strongly criticised the bank’s decision of downsizing and promised that she would reinstate all the employees as soon as her party came back to power.
She had told a group of employees during her visit to the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai on Dec 17, 2007, that she remembered her promise and would reinstate the bank employees if her party formed the government after 2008 elections.
Out of 5,500, a number of employees have died over the past 11 years, some have joined other banks and many others have reached the age of superannuation, leaving only 1500-2000 who demand reinstatement.
Gul Mohammed and thousands others like him have appealed to the president and prime minister to right the wrong done to them during the second government of Nawaz Sharif by directing the UBL management to reinstate the employees with all due benefits and fulfil the promise of Ms Benazir Bhutto.