Senate of Pakistan has expressed strong displeasure over the response from the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue expressed serious concerns after a Deputy Director of the SBP responded to a letter addressed directly to the central bank’s Governor.
The letter concerned foreign exchange issues faced by parliamentarians, but the committee questioned why the Governor had not responded personally or assigned the matter to another senior official.
The committee meeting was chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, who criticised the handling of the correspondence.
Members rejected the response submitted by Deputy Director Salman Shah, saying the issues raised by parliamentarians required attention at a higher level of the central bank.
Mandviwalla said it was inappropriate for a junior official to respond to a matter addressed directly to the Governor, given the importance of the concerns.
The committee stressed that the Governor or another senior SBP official should have addressed the issues instead of leaving the matter to a Deputy Director.
It decided to seek an explanation from the central bank’s senior management as to why the letter was handled at a lower administrative level.
The committee’s concerns centre on the level of representation given to the parliamentarians’ complaints and the central bank’s response to their foreign exchange-related issues.
