World News

Christian banker fired for his faith in Pakistan

A Christian banker, denying allegations of embezzlement, has appealed to a Catholic Church justice commission for help following his dismissal from the National Bank of Pakistan.

 

Waseem Maqbool, in charge of a section that documents sales and income tax returns, was investigated by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and dismissed last month. The employee discipline office of the bank accused him of sharing the FBR user identity and password with Waseem Shehzad, a Muslim office boy who committed suicide in 2018.

“He passed fraudulent credit vouchers wherein credit was afforded to other accounts instead of the actual beneficiary and amount thereof was embezzled,” stated a FBR letter issued on the 18th of March. 

Maqbool, a father of two, admitted sharing the FBR password. “I was following a branch manager’s directives since being transferred to the Lahore regional office in 2016. Shehzad use to help the management and received a performance award. He had access to the password of my predecessor,” he told UCA News.

“He modified handwritten vouchers to transfer the amount of thirty million rupees into the accounts of his father and sister-in-law. He collected funds at the direction of his bank manager. After two years of inquiry, most of the Muslim officers were declared innocent while I was dismissed. Finding a decent job amid the pandemic is tough.”

Behram Khan, legal aid coordinator at the Catholic bishops’ National Commission for Justice and Peace, branded it as a case of religious discrimination in the workplace.

Source: ucanews.com

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