ISLAMABAD: Even after 48 hours, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) breakdown was continuing, leaving its consumers hard and dry.
Till closing of the banking hours at 5.30 pm on Wednesday, the bank system remained down.
HBL system is off line since Tuesday morning and its millions of consumers were waiting desperately for an announcement from the management to end their ordeal till closing of banking hours at 5.30 pm.
An Islamabad- based branch manager confirmed to NEWSMAN that the bank system was yet down at the closing of the banking hours.
The bank management had claimed on Tuesday in its statement sent to NEWSMAN that HBL was facing some technical problem and its technical team was struggling to remove it. But after 48 hours the problem was still there and its comsumers are still to get out of their agony.
HBL is Pakistan’s one of top banks and its network is the second largest in the country. Its braches are growing fast, indicating the consumers’ trust in it . Its massive network shows that the people of Pakistan prefer HBL for banking over other Pakistani banks. Pakistan’s banking industry has grown at unparalleled pace since 2006, which shows the level of comfort of the consumers with the banking system of Pakistan. However, HBL’s breakdown has turned like a nightmare for its consumers.
In many places, the bank staff created serious trouble for the consumers. For example in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, the bank staff made the consumers to stand in the rain in chilling winter weather. They even made elderly males and women consumers to stand out in the rain for hours. At many branches in Rawalpindi and Islamabad the consumers had brawl to make their entry into the branches to protect themselves from rain and biting cold.
The public relation section of HBL remained indifferent to the problem and people worries on the second day of trouble also. Interestingly, HBL has no system for the consumers to get any update on the situation arising out of its system failure as it happened on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday.
HBL Public Relation Section which should have giving its online link remained out of the consumers reach on Tuesday. Except recorded audios uploaded on helpline, there is no other channel for the consumers of HBL to reach out to the public relation section in case of any trouble.
NEWSMAN tried for the whole day to reach out to the Public Relation Section of HBL , but it remained as an abortive attempt. Had there been an email or direct number of the concerned department of the bank it would have made the task to contact the Public Relation Officer of the bank easier.
This correspondent tried to get some information from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on the issue as it involves worries and tension of millions of the HBL consumers but it too remained fruitless. SBP spokesman, Abid Kanwar, did not seem much concerned to HBL system breakdown.
Talking to NEWSMAN, Abid Knawar, said “ It’s HBL which would respond to the issue as SBP is not supposed to comment on such petty issues”.
