The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the parliament, which met with MNA Noor Alam Khan in the chair, on Thursday reviewed the Ministry of Finance’s audit report for the financial year, 2019-2020, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
Committee Chairman Noor Alam Khan, on the occasion, asked the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) officials as to why the bank had laid down a strict criterion for opening an account.
The officials, in their reply, said that the criterion was not strict, and that the reason why the entire process was time consuming because they had to get some things verified before allowing people to open their accounts.
In fact, they added, they wanted more and more people to open accounts in the bank.
They said that it should also be borne in mind that the FATF, too, had laid down some conditions in this regard.
Chairman Noor Alam said that the procedure should be easy for the people drawing an amount between Rs50, 000 and Rs100, 000.
Mushahid Hussain Syed said scrutiny of politicians’ documents was understandable. “But the irony is that lot of time is taken even when it comes to the opening of their family members’ bank accounts,” he regretted.
Reporter: Usman Khan