Dated: Dec 04, 2008.
To,

Mr.Asim Iqbal,
Manager Monitoring, Collection and Recovery,
Consumer Division Bank Alfalah Limited.

Dear Mr. Asim Iqbal,

Your letter dated on Dec 02, 2008 is an epileptic outburst of this very bureaucratic mindset reminiscent of prehistoric Egyptian time that I am firmly determined to fight against. My heart is engulfed by a thick wave of melancholy when I find myself helpless vis-à-vis this long list of follies and white lies that you have taken special pains to prepare. I greatly wonder that the type of anachronistically fashioned bureaucracy that you belong to is allowed to be unleashed to such extremes of non-sense that the very glance of which is sufficient enough to shatter one’s trust in this whole system and boggle one’s mind down to abysmal.
Unless one is either a god or an angel, it is next to impossible for him or her to entertain a complaint and do justice to it when the complaint has been made against him or her. In the light of this self-evident eternal truth, how is it possible for a mortal like you to entertain my complaint and do justice with regard to it when the same has been made against you and/or your own department It is against the basic tenets of justice to appear as an accused and act as a judge at the same time.
One cannot help wondering over a bank’s ability to continue to speak lies, concoct tales and distort facts. This new episode of blunders and lies is in complete agreement with the ones that this bank and its white elephants have committed over the past few months. Either you do not enjoy an unhindered access to the facts associated with this case or the bank has made a perfect choice to present a goof who is notoriously famous to speak lies and never gets ashamed of. Against all the absurd claims made in your letter, my card was never blocked in the month of February 2007.
Your contention as to a business transaction that was ‘detected’ by this bank and followed by the blocking of my card in the month of February or so, you are advised to give a perusal to the very terms and conditions contained in credit card issuance guidelines that authorizes a card holder to use this card at more than 30 million locations in more than 20 countries around the world including 15000 establishments in Pakistan accompanied by a cash advance facility up to 70 percent of the card denomination available at ATMs and cash counters of bank alfalah branches. Now would you please condescend to explain what breach of the above mentioned authorizations constitutes to be a business transaction and at which ATM, cash counter or merchant store this unlawful transaction was conducted and what action your bank took against that ATM, cash counter or merchant store which was an accomplice to the conducting of this unlawful business transaction?
Your next contention as to the various notices both verbal and written, repeatedly communicated to me over the period of at least six months and that I was time and again requested to clear the outstanding on my card account constitutes only the half truth and exhibits a malicious desire upon your part to distort the facts in your own favor.
The fact is that in the month of April 2008 my card was abruptly blocked without informing me in advance while I was doing shopping along with my family at a retail store in Faisal Abad. This unjustified blocking of my card was followed by a number of telephonic conversations and a few correspondences between this scribe and Mr. Fayyas Mughal manager risk management unit and finally resulted into a legal notice communicated to this bank by my lawyer to account for this arbitrary blocking which caused great inconvenience, embarrassment and mental torture to his client. As a result of an intervention made by Mr.Fayyas Mughal, an off-court settlement was reached on May 22, 2008 and was communicated to me by Mr. Bilal from the regional office bank alfalah Faisal Abad and an amount of Rs.7700 was deposited against my credit card account on the same date as a part of the settlement to fulfill my commitment in accordance with it. However this bank that runs its advertising campaign under the banner of THE CARING BANK, has never felt any shame or remorse until this day for violating the commitments made through this settlement and breaching of my trust. I was never sent an apology nor was my card unblocked.
Your third contention as to Right of Set off clause which is based upon this ridiculous assumption that one, under the law has a right by his or her free will to authorize another person or organization to commit a fraud or extortion against himself or herself whenever it pleases and for which an approval in written form is obtained by the said person or organization in advance. Presently I leave this matter to be pondered over by the State Bank to decide as to under what ethical tenets such a clause has been permitted to be included into the terms and conditions got signed fraudulently by these exploitative banks at the time of issuing the credit cards. However you are humbly requested to give a second reading to the Fair Debt Collection Guidelines to Banks and DFIs For Addressing Customers/Borrowers Grievances making this clause non operative at least for the time being.
“ Banks/DFIs have been advised to ensure that (a) their collection / recovery staff do not transfer or misuse any personal data of the customers/borrowers without their prior approval.”
“ Advance notice will be required to be served to the customer/borrower when bank/DFI staff picks up the payment and if it is done on customer’s request then it should be properly recorded.”
“ Introduce a well defined mechanism for addressing complaints against the collection/recovery staff.”
“ If any bank/DFI has already developed its debt collection code of conduct, the same shall be modified in line with these guidelines.”
“ Strict action shall be taken against the bank/DFI for non-compliance of above mentioned guidelines.
I have invented none of these guidelines myself as the whole package of these guidelines is available at the SBP website for your kind attention to spare and get enlightened. On October 28, 2008 I was given a settlement plan and directed to submit the first installment within two days. On account of my financial constraints and in view of the robust amount I made an appeal to the bank to break the installments into smaller amounts. The last statement of account sent to me by this bank shows a payment of Rs.8200 with thanks made on Nov.01, 2008. Despite these facts mentioned above, on Novembr 17, 2008, my account was debited by RS.193736.50 as you yourself have confessed in your letter.
Not any advance notice was served in this regard nor any prior approval was taken before my account was debited. It was shocking to observe that a bank that is a very symbol of trust for its customers can go to such an extent of strangulating one of its valuable customers who is already subjected to the authoritatively bureaucratic mindset of its cadre.
A breach of trust has been committed. A violation of these guidelines has been perpetrated. The very essence of service sector has been damaged and all these outrages in the very face of State Bank OF Pakistan which has been created under the law to save the hapless citizens of this country vis-à-vis these multinational outfits. In a country like ours where a micro credit facility is not available by a cash deficient government to its people, such commercial banks sooner or later turn into an exploitative and oppressive imperialistic force with its cadre inflicting disrespect and humiliation upon its people for one pretext or another through its traditionally archaic tools of authoritative bureaucracy. It happens that when a credit card is issued to a person, it is blocked after some time on one pretext or another and the card holder is asked to visit the bank, make round of different desks, sign different forms and is subjected this way to untold misery and humiliation. It is perhaps true that the moment one get at the payroll of these multinationals, one is rendered allegiant neither to his or her motherland nor to these outfits.
Were these guidelines issued on November 04, 2008 by the state bank of Pakistan only to be trampled by this commercial bank and its cadre with a blatant sense of impunity? If these aforementioned guidelines are any guide towards a lawful conduct, then this bank through your department has committed the worst type of hooliganism, extortion and bullying. This time, this rogue bank did not undertake the usual practice of sending its bullies at my home to intimidate me. They have simply picked up my amount of Rs.193736.50 forcefully from my account at Jaranwala branch and run away with it.
Through an arbitrary interpretation of the credit card issuance guidelines, this bank had already violated my fundamental right to continue to enjoy a free access to a lawful product and/or service available to common citizenry without any discrimination of cast, creed, or sex. But this time, the bank has crossed all the bounds of business ethics and lawful conduct by perpetrating this forceful extortion against this hapless person.
A strict action is demanded from the state bank to cancel the license of this rogue bank which is a blot on the face of the service sector and bring to book all those who have dared violated the strict guidelines issued by the SBP and derided the true spirit of law.



Ijaz butt
P-53, water works road Jaranwala
0345-7771571 ([email protected])
A copy of this letter is being referred to the State Bank of Pakistan.