KARACHI, Sept 20: Taking money back from any institution has always been a difficult problem but the depositors of Taiser Town feel that the return of their money is deliberately being delayed.

Long queues of unlucky applicants at Allied Bank branches for refunding of their money are common these days presenting a look of a utility store where rush of consumers for buying subsidised sugar and pulses can be seen.

“This is painful to stay for hours to get back my own money,” complained Pervez, an applicant of Taiser Town scheme. He said at least three hours were required to withdraw the deposited money from any ABL branch.

Long queues at almost all 35 braches of the bank are common and during Ramazan it would be more difficult to withdraw money as the State Bank would cut the bank timings.

Most of the applicants also complained that the ABL staff was taking much more time to clear their dues forcing them to stand under the scorching heat for hours and no arrangements for shed and drinking water had been made.

Another applicant Abid standing at ABL Gulshan branch told Dawn the staff took 10 to 20 minutes to clear dues.

However, the bank management denying the claim said that only 3 to 4 minutes were consumed to clear the dues of an applicant.

“We clear dues immediately but a lot of people come to get money on behalf of others which requires some documentation,” said Mr Almas, the official in-charge of the scheme in ABL.

The applicants said that the bank was asking to bring authority letter to withdraw money of their wives or mothers.

“The bank manager at NIPA branch is not ready to clear dues even after the authority letter,” said Moeen, another complainant.

“Long queues are must as over 300,000 people had deposited money and this is also important that we are extremely cautious as we cannot afford to handover the money to others without getting authority letters,” Mr Almas said.

He said the long queues had started shrinking as the bank had already refunded money of 50 to 60 per cent applicants. He had no data about the disbursement.

A number of people said that the bank should speed up the process to clear their dues. The bank management said that additional staff had already been provided for speedy clearance of dues.

A number of people express the fear that Zakat will be deducted from their deposits as Ramazan is just around the corner.

However, the bank denied the impression. “This money is in current account and there is no question of deduction of Zakat,” said the bank official.

Reduced bank timings in Ramazan will further add to the misery of the Taiser Town applicants who have to spend more time to get back their money.

A number of depositors said they wanted to withdraw their money before Ramazan not only to avoid hardships during the month due to short-timings but also they needed cash for Eid shopping.

Some others said that they had deposited the money by borrowing from their relatives or friends who were now demanding for the return of money.