His Excellency, the President of Pakistan,

President’s Secretariat
I S L A M A B A D.
5th of June, 2006.
SUBJECT: ZARAI TARAQIATI BANK-ITS ROLE IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

Dear President,

I have the honor to take opportunity for sharing my experiences

during my service of A.D.B.P/ Z.T.B.L. I have closely monitored the social and
economic structure of the rural areas in Pakistan as well as role of A.D.B.P in
social and economic development right from branch to Head office level which I
have attempted to articulate in the enclosed study. I expect every step taken will
be in the best interest of the country, as our identity is only and only with
Pakistan.

I look forward to hearing from your Excellency and would welcome any service I
could do for my country.

Yours Sincerely,

Shaukat Masood Zafar,

House No.1060, Street No.95, Sector I-10/1,

Islamabad. Phone. 051-4444284, 0333-5499592.

 CASE STUDY OF ZARAI TARAQIATI BANK LIMITED---ITS
ROLE IN DEVELOPMENT OF FOOD AND FIBRE
PRODUCTION---ITS FUTURE.

Agricultural production has long been a mainstay of the Nation’s economy, successfully
feeding and clothing the domestic population as well as exporting agricultural goods.
Although the ZTBL has played a vital role in agricultural development in the past, it can,
however, be only as much effective as the effort put into it in a planned, organized and
coordinated way. Unfortunately, the importance of proper planning for development of
agriculture had never been realized by the Bank management after mid-nineties to the
extent this sector demanded. Being ex-officer of the Bank I intend to share my
experiences during my service in making a general analysis of the basic factors that have
limited the capacity of the Bank and resultantly the agricultural production, and to
identify the role which an institutional credit agency like ZTBL was required to play for
effective acceleration of the efforts to achieve the goal of maximum agricultural
production.
HISTORY OF ADBP (NOW ZARAI TARQIATI BANK LIMITED)

• Banking is traditionally an industry that calls for utmost prudence and eternal vigilance
in securing the safety of public funds and retaining public confidence. Stability of a
bank is always based on continued public trust and solvency. Prior to mid-eighties, the
Bank employees looked to the character, capacity and capital of the borrowers, while
considering their loan applications. There was no corruption in the Bank on a
significant or debating level. Consequently one never heard of charge sheets or
employee-dismissals for acts of misconduct or corruption. A charge sheet was
considered a serious weapon and was rarely used. Banking skill and knowledge
consisted more of business content and less of needing a professional qualification as
far as credit delivery techniques were concerned. If one were to learn the primary
thumb rules of safety, security, liquidity and profitability, and basics of negotiable
instruments act, he successfully managed the Branch of the Bank. Under-graduates and
matriculates could control not only Bank branches, but hold responsible position even
at the Head Office. Failure was an exception, and when an individual case occurred, it
was felt as a dooms-day by the bank management. It was not professionalism, but
pragmatism, sound commonsense, personal integrity and cleanliness that ruled the day.
Today the Bank officials are not perturbed if bad advance even to an extent of rupees
5/10 lacs emerges. No one has time or concern to ponder and correct the rut that is now
found commonly everywhere.
• The situation qualitatively changed after mid eighties. Old dedicated and experienced
field staff was replaced by “agricultural Graduate” MCOs. During nineties top
management also withered away due to natural process of superannuation and
retirement. The new leadership that inherited the top layers was ill prepared to shoulder
the added new burden. It lacked the traditional banking culture of trustworthiness and
prudence. Selfish opportunism and adhoc adventuresome characterized the new
management. They lacked vision. Personal greed replaced prudent goals for securing
the Institution's interests.
• Why all this happened? Why wrongdoings emerged on a vast dimension in the new era,
while things were smooth and fair earlier? Why the bank became inefficient and corrupt
when qualified agricultural graduates and postgraduates were inducted in the system,
while it remained more care taking and competent earlier with high-school passed and
under graduates managed the show? The employees were then vigilant to protect and
safeguard their assets, but today it is an irony that bank executives are increasingly
coming under the preview of vigilance scrutiny. The custodians of public trust and
confidence are increasingly becoming untrustworthy. There is today an urgent need for
strictly guarding the guardians of the Bank.
• The feeling of false security, wrong business objectives, and the effect of political
influence exerted on the Bank in its day-to-day administration adversely affected the
management of the Bank. Remote directions for routine business operations of the
Bank acted to the detriment of the innate initiative, self reliance and efficiency of the
senior and middle level management within the Bank. They became dumb rubber
stamps to blindly ditto whatever instructions were received from the external
controllers. Lack of professional training, quick promotions (vertical ascendancy
without horizontal movement and without gaining experience in multiple disciplines) of
the top and middle management, and cross-country transfer of staff, without planning a
regular career path for them resulted in unplanned deployment of the unprepared
human resources leading to imperfect operations.
• The Bank faced no major crisis before mid-nineties, when the personnel of the old top
management were continuing and steering the course of management. But after the
mid-nineties when the new generation of those in the junior cadre succeeded to top
executive posts and took control of the Bank, things started drifting. The new
generation of top management setup came to occupy positions exclusively on the
strength of quick promotions, after putting in few years of service in the middle posts in
the hierarchy. A quickly erected structure lacked stability and durability and similarly
these instantly developed top executives lacked the vision and foresight that their job
demanded. They lacked expertise in management needed for administering a huge
corporate organization like ZTBL and motivating and activating several thousands of
staff members in a goal oriented direction. The new top management inherited status
and ego, but lacked personality and image to motivate, vision to foresee and
commitment to supply a long-term culture and growth path. Human resource
development could not keep pace with the rapid Business growth. Business remained
appreciating but human resources development kept on depreciating.
• The executives regularly hold meetings, but no serious and sincere concern or
discussion about the affairs of the Bank takes place in those meetings. The top most
executives intended to provide collective wisdom and inter disciplinary expertise acts
as a mere rubber stamp, leaving the field exclusively to the whims and arbitrary fancies
of the Regional Managers. This absolute power with no in-built checks and controls on
the Regional Managers served as the main crippling effect for the decay and downfall
of the Bank.
• This atmosphere became a fertile ground for breeding widespread corruption at
different centers, starting from the Head Office, and extending to the Regional office
and finally the Branches. Chairmen of the Bank occupied arbitrary powers in a brief
period of contract tenure, sure to be terminated at the near future. They lacked vision,
 foresight or motivation for long-term building of an edifice or culture for the Bank, but
were looking only towards short-term objectives.
• The Bank had its own terms and ruled its own territory without competition. On the one
hand debt liability of the borrowers continued inflating due to high rate of corruption
prevailing amongst the Bank employees and on the other hand the Bank imposed
exorbitant interest rates and exploited the farmer’s community with impunity. To show
the better achievement in recovery of loans, the borrowers were advanced frequent
loans for adjustment of their previous debts which naturally resulted into over-
financing, beyond the repaying capacity of the borrowers. Unfortunately, Bank
management was unable to see far enough in the future the implications of this window
dressing. Business growth continued, as it is persisting even today, but emergence of
NPLs in the balance sheet of the Bank crippled its profitability and reduced its capital
adequacy. The Bank started to be categorized as loss showing bank. The concept of the
Debt Restructuring Plan was the logical means of resolving the deadlock between
borrowers and the Bank. But it was a far-fetched idea not in consonance with the
ground realities in Pakistan. There were not enough subject specialists available to
make Corporate Restructuring and Debt Restructuring Plan in the Bank. While
implementing restructuring plan, both the unwilling and incapacitated defaulters were
treated at par which in fact allured the good repay master borrowers waiting for another
“Relief package” for discharging their loan liabilities rather than making the prompt
repayments.
• Corruption started rising up its ugly head at alarming levels. Along with the growth of
business accompanied the growth in NPLs. The accumulation of NPL indicates the
miserable state of affairs in the fields of credit management, inspection, audit and
control, while the overwhelming response to VGHSS during 2002 indicates the total
failure of HRD management in the Bank. Fear of ever impending threat of Charge
Sheets and Disciplinary cases among honest and hard workers was main cause for
exercising their option to accept VGHSS and to leave service than to continue. The
corrupt elements still remained holding the field and they did not feel necessary to
exercising their option to accept VGHSS.
• No one may complain, if charge sheets are served on the really guilty, who disobey
authority or who are caught involved in corruption. Innocent and honest employees are
served a spate of charge sheets in a routine manner. If Charge sheet is the weapon that
is able to enforce discipline and cleanliness in services, it is justified. But in an
atmosphere where charge sheets are served on some one, so that it saves the seniors
from explaining chronic situations, it has turned to be counter productive. Charge sheet
is not considered as a discipline enforcing process, but as a bureaucratic response to an
adverse operational development in the Bank's business. It is an easy, evasive and
escapist endeavor.
• In spite of such a disaster being faced by the Bank, the HRD is still not cared of. I think
more amounts are spent in disciplinary cases than in imparting training to the
employees. Can a Zonal Chief in the bank take the challenge of his management skill
and show and prove the ability to provide zero level operational errors of serious
nature, and bane charge sheets for procedural errors in his zone? Are the systems and
procedures so imperfect that it is not possible to secure this ideal state? Where is the
fault, is it in all operational officer employees all the time? is it in the system and
 procedures? Or is it in the management efficiency of the executives, who control and
oversee the Bank functioning?
• The most of top Bank executives are quite unfamiliar with the problems holding the
field. They too deal in papers and reports and expect things to be done by writing down
notes. Productivity can not be increased just by writing notes. It requires proper vision
and skill to remove the hurdles lying in the way. The whole devastation is because of
the tendency of the senior management to exercise power and authority without
accepting equal responsibility. There is no goal-setting, there is no spirit, and there is no
mission and above all no honesty of purpose. Corruption at the lower level is fought,
but incidence of corruption is proportionate to the exercise of power. The senior
executives in top management are more vulnerable to the lure and temptations of office
and power. They choose to bait bureaucrats. They have the means. However, with
proper planning, the Bank can grow again, and along with it, the agricultural economy
of the country should be able to grow too, Inshallah. There is still a lot of opportunity
for the authorities to derail the nascent recovery.
• The top Bank management should be aware that knowledge is not a commodity that
can be stored in currency chests or deposited in Bank Vaults. It has necessarily to be
retained in human brains and backup storage devices. "People are most valuable asset
of an organization, which no member of any senior management team would disagree
with. Yet, the reality for this Bank is its employees remain under valued, under trained
and under utilized only and only due to inefficient senior management. In order to
implement a successful business strategy in the Bank must ensure that it has right
people in the top management capable of delivering an effective strategy.
• The distortions in the management of discipline enforcement and non-action on the
prevailing widespread corruption are only one part of the situation. I am only making a
parting reference to this tragic episode and intend to pass on to a darker side of another
inhuman outrage, that of misusing such arbitrary powers on the meeker sections of the
officers in the middle management through blatant application malice and victimization
in the guise of taking disciplinary action by the corruption-ridden management. This
manifests as deception and fraud in conducting inquiries. How the tool is being used to
settle score and to strike on those not dear or near to the bosses, needs no illustration.
• It is a common perception that employees in the public sector do not work hard or are
incompetent but our day-to-day experience does not support this. It may be correct in
some cases but not in general term. There are countless ordinary public servants doing
their jobs effectively and even under great stress. Same is the position in the Bank. In
fact most of the people working in the Bank were dedicated, competent and hard
working who opted for GHSS and preferred not to continue their service due to unjust
attitude of the management. Even by now there are a number of people working with
dedication and honesty and majority from the rest can be brought on track by
implementing the effective policies, if so desired. The remaining Bank employees who
do not do their jobs or involved in corruption should be discharged. What is required
from the Bank in that case is the employee is given notice of the reasons for discharge
and an opportunity to defend himself; and that the final decision is made by a fair
process. One thing is very much clear that if anything lacks is the quality of
management in the Bank -- not quality of workers.
• Unjust decisions taken by different managements in the Bank after mid-nineties
providing shelter to the corrupt elements and creating embarrassing position for honest
and dedicated employees resulted into a huge and infinite litigation in the Bank. The
things are even on record to show that the Bank was burdened with this unnecessary
expense merely with the intention that cost was being born by the Bank and not from
the own pocket of the management. This unnecessary litigation demoralized the honest
and dedicated people who ultimately preferred to quit the service with the natural result
that it cleaned the way for corrupt elements who are now at absolute liberty to do
whatever they like.
• Yet another wrong decision of the Bank managements particularly after 2000 was to
harass the employees by adopting different techniques which created a sense of
insecurity of their service amongst the Bank employees and resultantly paved the way
to a non-stop corruption in the Bank. So much so due to that service insecurity created
by the managements some honest people also tended to make money through some
unfair deals just to preserve their uncertain future. Those unfair actions of the
management and reactions of the Bank employees are at climax even in the present
regime of the management which has created a war like situation in the Bank. The most
corrupt elements have become custodians of the Bank and actions of the management
reflect that they are fully supported by the top management. National exchequer is
being thrown away for personal whims and nobody is there to take accountable the
managements for such a high leveled loss of funds.
• An arbitrary decision taken by the Government during the year 2002 was
corporatisation of the Bank without changing the mind-set of its management and
devising any proper future strategy. Many dedicated and honest employees lost their
jobs as a result of its abortive corporatisation. Cutting jobs has not meant cutting out the
work those people once did. Those who have remained
have seen their workloads increase. For some the increase has been so great they are
unable to perform all their new duties and suffer from burnout and frustration with the
definite result that the quality of work at present in the branches is at worst level
countrywide, but nobody is there to care of.
• Apart from many other absolutely wrong decisions taken by the Bank management
during its corporatization in the year 2002, a very suspicious and

mysterious action was that the management got re-evaluated the fixed assets of the Bank
as Rs. 1.140 billions against their original worth of approximately Rs. 35.000 billions
(Now raised to about more than Rs. 50.000 billions). Simultaneously a comprehensive
campaign was launched by the management through the print media to prove the Bank to
have become almost bankrupt after having lost 90% of its loans. I don’t know its
background but I can say that such type of actions lost the credibility of the Bank in
absolute terms.

REQUIREMENTS OF PAKISTAN IN AGRICULTURE CREDIT SECTOR

• In an agricultural economy like Pakistan, agricultural development is considered as the

foundation of industrial development and, consequently of country's overall economic
 development. But to attain agricultural development, the government must consider
agricultural credit as an important policy. The basic principle of reform in agricultural
finance is to maintain and repair the financial institutions instead of to destroy or take
apart the whole system. Withdrawing the Government support to agriculture and
farming, and increasingly leaving farmers at the mercy of the private money lenders
and the markets, has put this sector in a very critical position. The tragic and shocking
reversal of the role - feeding the farmers who have been feeding the country all the
times - is the result of the culmination of national policies that have neglected
agriculture and farming merely in the wake of globalization without analyzing its
impacts. It is need of the day among other things: reversing the declining trend in
public investment in agriculture, stepping up credit flow to farmers, enhancing public
investment in irrigation and wasteland development, increasing funds for agricultural
research and extension, investing in rural healthcare and education, promoting rural
electrification and rural roads, setting up commodities futures markets and insuring
against risk in farming and rural business.
• The commercial banks generally view the agriculture lending as a risky proposition
despite the fact that the non-performing assets in the farm sector are lower than in other
sectors in real sense. While Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited, being specialized
developmental agency, has a crucial role to play in this sector. Instead of putting this
institution into the process of privatization, there is a need for continuous interaction
with farmers by the Bank to study their problems and the government should propose to
streamline the credit delivery mechanism to this most vital sector through ZTBL as
continuous flow of credit to the farmers can not be expected from any private lending
agency. It is also to be kept in view that the commercial banks, despite their
recapitalization, had not been able to fulfill the priority sub-sector target fixed by the
SBP for the agriculture sector. Further, in the context of declining interest rates in the
banking sector, it is necessary that the rates charged from farmers be brought down
substantially and provision of credit to the farmers may be enhanced to save them from
exploitation by the private moneylenders, arhaties and commission agents.
• The successful experience in a specific enterprise of a given country or region is not
directly replicable in the enterprise of another country or sometimes even within the
same country. The in-depth studies in this volume confirm that the social, economic
and political context plays a major role, and thus needs to be kept in mind. There
appears to be a lack of clear assessment of the benefits and costs of privatization of all
the assets in Pakistan, and insufficient efforts to seek alternatives. A cursory study of
the current situation would show that in many cases the process is perceived to be and
reacted to essentially as a political issue. The choice is not based on a clear assessment
of the wide range of costs and benefits of privatization and restructuring of a specific
unit. Decisions are or appear to be rushed, taken in an emergency, leaving little room
for rationality. Before launching any entity for privatization, there needs to be a clear
statement of its goal, along with how the option and the path chosen should achieve it,
and a full and fully understandable account of the foreseen positive and negative
consequences.
• Surveys show that a large percentage of farmers already want to leave farming because
of tightening policies of the Government, their insufficient access to credit, and due to
lack of so many other facilities they find it is no longer sufficiently profitable. The
 uncertainty associated with farming has also increased, and farmers lack effective
means of insuring against such risks. There are larger market uncertainties associated
with the crops and poultry because of greater vulnerability owing to falling
groundwater levels. There is also evidence of increased indebtedness arising from the
inability to cope with risks.
• Due to the economic decline in rural areas, low profitability, uncertainness of crops,
lack of facilities as discussed above, and the difficulties in monitoring agricultural
operations (high risks) bankers regard agriculture as an unattractive sector for
investments. In general, commercial banks are reluctant to provide credit to agricultural
entrepreneurs and there seems to be no competition between them. They do not make
much use of their own funds, but act only if credits are guaranteed or investments are
supported by the Government. An efficient rural finance system is a precondition for
economically viable agricultural production on the national scale. Most agricultural
enterprises/farmers face difficulties in accumulating enough credit. There have no funds
left for any re-investments. The government needs to react in order to avoid a total
collapse in agricultural production rather than destroying the existing financial
institutions in the name of “Globalization”. The role of the government is vital in this
very important sector. The Zarai Taraqiati Bank is still the most important source of
credit to agricultural entrepreneurs which needs to be re-organized and strengthened,
because any private entity would always be looking for other possibilities to make
profits instead of catering the needs of the agricultural sector.
• Over the years, one of the major problems facing Pakistan government has been to
ensure food security to their huge numbers of low-income people. Through state trading
enterprises, government purchases food from producers and distributes throughout the
country by using public food distribution channels. But this policy to provide cheap
food by subsidizing mostly the urban consumers has had an adverse impact on food
production, income of farmers, and on rural areas in general. Government should
provide support to farmers by lowering the inputs prices and subsidized farm credit
which will result agricultural production on lower prices and ensure food security both
for rural and urban consumers requiring no subsidy.

GLOBAL SCENARIO TOWARDS AGRICULTURE CREDIT SECTOR

• The countries which previously followed development strategy based on

industrialization alone soon realized that without an expanding agriculture sector, the
urban labor force would not be able to buy food at reasonable prices, there would be no
supply of raw materials for industries, and the majority of population living in rural
areas would not have the purchasing power to buy goods produced by the industries.
Now, even among those developed countries where manufacturing and the service
sectors are considered to be the driving force of the economy, the agriculture sector is
still prioritized to remain an important contributor, especially in the food production.
Although the percentage contribution of agriculture to gross domestic product (GDP) is
declining in all the developing as well as developed countries; in term of absolute value
the amount is increasing. Rapid agricultural growth has the potential that can stimulate
and thus sustain the pace of industrial growth, thus setting into motion a mutually
reinforcing process of sustained economic growth. The agriculture credit sector is
 contributing significantly to the growth of their economies. Most of the countries have
set up their rural credit systems being run as state-owned statutory bodies (with
whatever name) who are responsible to arrange, provide, supervise and co-ordinate
credit for agricultural purposes. The idea for those state-owned entities is uniformly to
embark on the maximum food production and to ensure the full realization of maximum
economic and social benefits. They have thus established as Rural Finance Institutions
to specialize in the provision of credit to the agricultural sector. Few examples of state
owned agricultural credit institutions are produced below:

1. Bank Partanian Malysia (BPM) Malaysia

2. Agricultural Bank Iran

3. Agricultural Credit Bank Yemen

4. Farmers Commercial Bank Sudan

5. Agricultural Bank Syria

6. Agricultural Credit Corporation Jordan

7. Agricultural Credit Egypt

8. Banque Nationale Agricole Tunisia

9. Agricultural Bank Libya

10. The Caisso National de Credit Agricole Morocco

11. Land and Agricultural Development Bank South Africa

12. Turkiye Cumhuriyeti Ziraat Bankasi Turkey

13. NABARD India

14. Agricultural Bank Saudi Arabia

• It is only in Pakistan where a system already existing to provide rural credit in shape of
Zarai Taraqiati Bank is being devastated by the Government itself instead of
introducing positive structural changes and deploying dedicated and skilled
management in the Bank. With Structural reforms by strengthening on human resources
development to upgrade knowledge, skill and instill the corporate culture of
professionalism, positive attitude, teamwork, responsiveness, individual development
and timeliness would be enhanced and carried out seriously. Quality workforce will
produce excellence results and project good image of the Bank, Inshallah.
WHAT TO DO?

• No doubt, privatization of some public sector entities is a good idea in the present
scenario, but it can not be enforced blindly in all the cases. The Government should
make a thorough, in-depth assessment before putting any entity into the process of
privatization. This assessment must be made against a full range of criteria including
cost efficiency, effectiveness and impact on competitiveness of the economy,
sustainable development, the wide spectrum of labour issues, the interests of consumers
and social welfare. Privatization of an essential organization like Zarai Taraqiati Bank
is not at all feasible in any way. Some private investors may be interested to purchase it
due to its undervalued assets but no private investor would be interested to continue its
less profitable operations on the long run. Withdrawing the Government support to
agriculture and farming by privatizing the ZTBL, and leaving farmers at the mercy of
the private money lenders and the markets could result into collapse of the economy as
a whole. It is only the public sector that can effectively and efficiently carry out certain
functions like catering the needs of the poor farmers and indeed only national
governments can assume those responsibilities that affect the state as a whole. Rather
than dispensing with the farmer support, considerable public investment in
infrastructure, capacity building and institutional strengthening is needed for
sustainable development of agriculture in Pakistan. The flow of production credit from
institutional sources needs to be increased for the poor farmers.
• The Government should operate diverse support schemes through the Bank such as
lowering interest rates, postponing repayment schedules, replacing the loans with
concessionary interest rate loans, or making other financial restructuring programs. The
farming community needs financial restructuring rather than debt structuring. It is
important to encourage the borrowers to overcome their debts and implement
restructuring works. Besides badly restructured loans, ill conceived plans as already
implemented by the Bank should be discarded. The Bank should sign a memorandum
of understanding with the borrowers, indicating that the the Bank can terminate it when
the borrowers do not keep their words. However, economic profitability of the
investment should be ensured. In case of debts the Government should no more bail out
both the bank and the borrowers with fresh money, anymore. In this respect, new rules
and regulations, including changed obligations have to be observed by both sides. In
case one side is no more sticking to its commitment, sanctions should be enacted.
Otherwise the rural finance system will collapse. It must be recognized that capacity
building at the field and intermediate levels needs to be supported by a more responsive
planning strategy at the national level.
• Bank’s action plan should focus at the grassroots level producing tangible results for
farmers; something that will make a difference to their lives. Amongst a number of
other options, the following actions can bring positive results not only in sustainable
rural development and capacity building of farmers but will also strengthen the Bank as
an institution:

a. Operations of the Bank may be restricted to cater the needs of the farmers
holding ownership of land not more than 25 acres irrigated land or 50
acres barani land.
 b. The Bank may provide production loan only to the extent of owned land
and no loans be granted on leaseholds.
c. Agricultural credit card may be introduced for land owners.
d. Small loans scheme upto Rs.25000/- may be introduced for landless
people on the surety of two guarantors who had already availed loan
against pass book system, to start their own business.
e. Small loans scheme upto Rs.25000/- may be introduced for women on the
surety of two guarantors who had already availed loan against pass book
system, to start their own handicrafts or cottage industries business.
f. A continuous communication system may be introduced between farming
community and the Bank. The farmers may be regularly informed the
latest research and farming techniques.
g. A regular contact of the Head office with the borrowers encouraging them
to increase their farm yields and realizing them their responsibility
regarding timely repayment of loan will generate a sense of confidence in
them and will certainly bring positive results.
h. Focus of the Bank should not be on profit earning alone but it should, in
particular, focus on the increase in per acre yield leading to self-
sufficiency of the country in food and fiber, to improve the capacity of the
farmers community by encouraging off-farm activities side-by-side, to
devise specific policies for each area as per its particular requirements, and
to ensure easy access to credit to the farmers.
i. Bank should generate its own funds by entering into commercial
operations throughout the country.
j. Incentive policies to the good repay masters can enhance the financial
viability of the Bank.
• President of the Bank is appointed by the government. He is placed in the Bank without
a process of consultation with the Board of directors and therefore he can not become
sensitive to the full range of stakeholder issues. For some time past particularly after
1995 to date, there is one man show prevailing in the Bank. A Chairman/President
takes over the Bank not based on his personal capabilities but due to some unseen
power behind him. Normally he does not take care of the decisions even taken by the
Board of Directors—what to say about rest of the people. Instead of working for the
Bank and ultimately for the country, he utilizes his energies to defeat his enemies i.e.
“the Bank employees”, the labor unions, and the officer associations particularly who
create hurdles in his unfair actions. He has normally nothing to do with the
development of agriculture or hardships of the farmer’s community. He brings his near
and dears having no vision about developmental banking on salaries ten times more
than the regular employees and plays hide and seek with the Bank employees for three
years instead of consuming his energies towards the actual objects of development of
agricultural, hardly has he left and then another comes into the picture and so on…..
Nepotism, favoritism, corruption, lack of vision, and arbitrary appointments in the Bank
is the order of the day. In fact engaging retired personnel as Chairman/President of the
Bank has not been proved a fruitful experience. Experience shows that the Bank
suffered losses only after the start of taking over the Bank by the retired people as
Chairman/President on political basis. Posting of sitting senior civil servants as
 Chairman/President ZTBL was, and can be the best possible option. What I suggest is
that the Board of directors should be more engaged in the selection of top management
in the Bank. All the top management positions including the President should be filled
by a transparent process where the Board makes the final decision so that the most
qualified candidates are chosen.
• Bad governance is in fact the root cause of evil within our society. There needs to be
checks and balances and consensus decision making in the Bank. Governance issues
include size and composition of its Board of Directors, general approach to consensus
building of the board and decision-making practices. Good governance begins and ends
with the Board. Lack of independence exposes the banking system to the risk of
ineffective use of public funds, and politically-driven, poor quality lending. Authority
of the BOD therefore must be firmly established; along with legal protection, the
appointments of bank regulators should be free from political influences. Good
corporate governance and transparency are fundamental to achieving the highest
standards goals. It will be advisable if a new powerful Board of Directors comprising of
all the stakeholders including farmers, employee’s representative, and Government
representatives etc. is constituted.
• State Bank of Pakistan should judge the effectiveness of the board of ZTBL as a whole
periodically and board members should be properly educated regarding their duties, as
well as on the key drivers of bank’s performance. Checks and balances of good
governance have to be in place for the Bank. General areas ensured should be codes of
ethics, clearly defined roles of Board members, committee members and senior staff,
along with conflicts of interest. Boards become better as they become more transparent.
• A system of monthly meetings of the Board of Directors with the executive committee
of the bank needs to be devised to review the developments regarding decisions taken
by the Board, the challenges and plan ahead for maintaining financial stability, sharing
systemic issues and concerns, seeking views on major policy issues, etc. A framework
should also be designed to identify weaknesses in the operations and financial health of
the Bank.
• The Board should create a scheme that set program targets for managers and staff on
capital adequacy, asset quality and profitability. Compensation should be tied to
achieving those targets. I think the management as well as the staff will respond
enthusiastically to the incentives. They will expand their focus from growth to credit
quality, efficiency and capital adequacy. As a result the Bank will become a stronger
and better managed bank.
• The management system in the Bank is unsound and the practices followed by the Bank
are not compatible with the required standards. The system requires to be fine-tuned
with the early warning system, supported by the financial soundness indicators and the
prompt corrective action framework. The BOD of the Bank should formulate
appropriate policies and standards, including rules for adequate capital in line with the
developments in best practices, standards and codes. The fine-tuning of the practices
should be an ongoing process.
• The Bank should achieve significant progress in strengthening its financials, marked by
robust growth in balance sheets, higher capital adequacy, better asset quality, good
corporate governance practices, etc. Consolidation and re-engineering of the
management practices and greater efficiency are necessary to meet the challenges
 ahead. The convergence of regulatory and supervisory standards within the Bank could
enable it to grow and expand more and more.
• Bank should understand that good governance is a very powerful tool for providing
positive incentives. It can reinforce a good credit culture. It is crucial to develop
managers who make credit decisions in the best interest of the Bank. This makes
borrowers more committed to repaying debts and will contribute to the overall health of
the Bank. Regular Training Programs appropriate to the particular context need to be
developed.
• The essence of good corporate governance includes safeguarding the interests of
Stakeholders through transparency, accountability, trustworthiness and responsibility.
The Board of Directors must ensure that a sound strategy is in place with adequate
instruments to control hazards and to maximize opportunities, in addition to upholding
integrity and high ethical values, and monitoring and measuring the Bank’s
performance. Setting performance targets and crafting effective mechanisms to
translate targets into accomplishments are also an integral part of corporate governance.
The Bank had strayed away from core competency due to lack of proper management
and paid a heavy price for that. Following immediate actions can serve as a short tem
strategy to bring the things on track:

a. A new “Senior Executives Committee” comprising of at least seven

“Senior Executives” to implement the policy decisions made by the Board
of Directors, with their clearly defined duties, can have the best positive
impact on the smooth functioning of the Bank. The Executives can be
selected on a five years contract out of the present/ Golden Hand shake
employees (being comprehensively familiar with the entire functions of
the Bank) through an open competition exam conducted by any outside
agency like Institute of Banking and Finance or any other agency. It will
have lowest possible cost with best possible results.

b. Present Executive Directors should be asked in clear terms either to

improve their efficiency or to leave the Bank.

c. Corrupt elements may not at all be spared. Firstly they can be politely
asked to quit one, either corruption or service. After that, if anybody is
found involved in corruption or embezzlement may be dealt with iron
hands.

d. Charge sheet culture needs to be ended forthwith and that weapon may be
used only where utmost necessary.

e. The employees may be assured their service security if they perform their
duties honestly and dedicatedly to create in them a sense of belonging.

• The Bank should have good baseline supervisory system, adoption of best practices in
supervision, sound legal and regulatory architecture, accounting and provisioning
 standards, transparency and corporate governance practices, skilled human resources
and robust risk management systems.

An effective and responsible Board; good incentives; independent auditing; innovative

and proactive regulators; committed professionals -- these are the building blocks for the
bridge that will lead the Bank into the future Inshallah. Given above are few tips to
streamline the Bank’s affairs. I can devise a comprehensive short term as well as long
term strategic plan for all the areas of Bank’s functions, if so desired.

Thanks a lot for sparing your precious time to study this document.

A STUDY BY: Shaukat Masood Zafar

Ph. 0333-5499592