The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Tuesday hinted that the police were responsible for the disappearance of thousands of prize bonds on May 8 while being transported from Lahore to this metropolis.
Quoting the Federal Treasury Rules, the SBP said the Lahore remitting office was to hand over the treasure to the police escort.
“It moves in their custody till it is received at the Karachi destination office,” said the bank in a statement issued Tuesday.
The bank clarified that some 20,000 missing pieces of prize bond forms of Rs 1,500 bearing serial numbers AW070001 to AW090000 were missing.
A consignment of un-stamped prize bond forms was dispatched by SBP Lahore Office for receipt at the State Bank’s office here via 16 Down Karachi Express, it said.
“The train departure from Lahore was delayed by approximately 12 hours and reached Karachi Cantt behind the schedule,” added the bank.
It said that the brake railway car carrying the treasure was unlocked at Karachi in the presence of all concerned including police escort and to their dismay they found one box out of the 10 was missing.
On further investigation, it transpired that one of the panels of the brake railway car was found to be tampered and broken into.
The SBP has issued ‘Stop Payment’ instruction to all SBP BSC Offices, commercial banks and Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS), in respect of the missing un-stamped prize bond forms.
Moreover, CDNS has been requested to notify withdrawal of above serial numbers from circulation with immediate effect through the Finance Division, Ministry of Finance, by issuing gazette notification in exercise of the powers conferred by Rule 4(1&2) of the Prize Bond Rules 1999, the bank said.