By TON Research Section

The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) shrinks due to the authorities' incompetence and the monopoly of private banks. The irrecoverable damage of the NBP is evident to the general public or clients of National Banks. In the last month, the management of NBP has decided to scale down its foreign operations, mainly through its branches. It is working to shut down at least seven units this year, out of 21 total branches. The authorities of Pakistan remained silent on the irrecoverable damage of the National bank.

There are four branches of a National bank in Bangladesh, located in Chittagong, Sylhet, Gulshan and Motijheel. The Nnational Bank's incompetent authority decided to close one of its Bangladesh branches after failing to recover nearly 98 per cent of its loans from debtors the bank's.

The state-owned NBP has branches in 21 countries and assets worth $20 billion. The National Bank of Pakistan has been operating in Bangladesh as NBP-BD since 1994, with four branches in three cities, serving about 8,000 customers. The Pakistani nation ran into trouble in 2013-24, after numerous debtors — mainly from the apparel sector — failed to meet loan obligations, Bangladesh central bank data shows. In December, NBP-BD's defaults amounted to $164 million, or 97.7 per cent of its total loans.

"We are going to close the operations at our Sylhet branch due to an extraordinary situation," states Mohammad Quamruzzaman, NBP-BD chief executive,

In the past six years, the bank has filed 143 cases against loan defaulters, recovering about $23 million, now it seems that the bank was unable to retrieve the loans. The incompetent authorities and officials were also decided to shut down the branch of Afghanistan in Jalalabad, which was started in 2004. In the next phase, the NBP management will further review various branches' operations in different countries and decide whether they will be shut down or remain functional.

However, one branch of the Kyrgyz Republic will be shut down in the coming weeks, as the host country's customers were directed to settle their accounts with the banks till February-end.

The corrupt authorities and monopoly of the private bank-led Pakistani national bank fell into big trouble by giving loans to fraudulent clients in 2013-14. The bank's top loans defaulters include Ibrahim Textile, Cotton Group, Koba Group, World Tell BD, DG Knitting Company, Aleya Sweater, Sara Group. These corporates also have links with officials who provide bank loans without any guarantee etc. This case was again repeated in 2017 when 65 officials, including the former president of the National Bank of Pakistan, had to be punished for the loan's irregularities in the lender's Bangladesh. However, the question arises who is responsible and if they punished, then why this situation not be controlled by the authorities?

In a contemporary situation, it is very complicated for banks to recover the Pakistani nation's money and bad loans as most clients do not want to return the money. This

tarnishes the image of the Pakistan and National bank of Pakistan just because of the monopoly of private banks and officials who have the stake in the corporate which are blessed by the loans of national banks.

The recent statement of Quamruzzaman, head of the country bank, state that" clearing their records, "cannot avail loans from any other banks in the future.", however, the question arise who is responsible for what happened in the past and present?

In 2019 During negotiations, the country had offered to repay the bank around $16.5 million. And sent this proposal in December 2019, and there was no work last year due to the authorities' lack of interest.

In the last, I want to wind up the tragic incident of closing National Bank in foreign countries. The way we know that Pakistan Is going through a critical period. Simultaneously, the corrupt authorities, for the sake of their self-interest, have done a lot of damage to Pakistan’s wobbled economy. The private bank's monopoly already damages the cause of national interest in Pakistan and out of Pakistan. The Supreme court should put up an inquiry on this issue and not punished but also recover the nation's money from those involved in the allow to plunder the loans of Pakistan's national bank.