MUZAFFARABAD, November 16: The AJK President Sardar Masood Khan has said that the Bank of Azad Jammu and Kashmir can play an important role in the socio-economic development of the state.
During a meeting with the Bank President Khawar Saeed who presented the annual report of the bank to him here on Monday, the state president said that the bank management had not only focused on improvement of its services to win the confidence of the customers, and at the same time, it was introducing new technologies, expansion of its network, and to provide state of the art banking facilities to the people of remote areas in order to compete for its counterparts in the financial sector.
He noted that the bank since its launching has not only made unprecedented achievements in the financial sector within a the short span of time, but it has also emerged as a big taxpayer entity. The day is not far off when this financial institution will get the status of a scheduled bank and will play an important role in providing banking facilities to the people of Azad Kashmir at their doorstep, he hoped.
On this occasion, President of the Bank Khawar Saeed told the state president that Bank of Azad Kashmir had earned a record profit in 2019-2020 for the first time in the last 14 years, and the Bank’s unprecedented performance in the in an environment of competition in the financial sector, was a matter of pride for the government and the people of Azad Kashmir.
He disclosed that the bank’s profit which was 130 million rupees in June 2017, had fallen to 71 million in June 2018, and it had further reduced to 12 million rupees only in June 2019. However, bank management considered it a challenge and worked day and night and earned a record-high 168 million rupees profit in 2020. Similarly, the bank deposits which were 11.87 billion rupees in 2019, had reached 14 billion rupees in six months.
Khawar Saeed further said that the remittances which were 373 million rupees in June 2019, had risen to record one billion rupees in 2020. In this way, a 173 per cent increase in remittances is a record in the history of the bank.
Meanwhile, the AJK President Sardar Masood Khan has expressed shock over the death of the mother of Jamaat Islami Pakistan Chief Sirajul Haq.
In a condolence message, he prayed to Allah to rest the departed soul in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss.
In a separate message to Altaf Hamid Rao, Bureau Chief Associated Press of Pakistan Mirpur, the AJK president prayed for his early recovery from novel coronavirus, and directed the state health department officials to pay special attention to the treatment of all corona patients including Mr Rao.
