LAHORE, May 8: Chief Secretary Javed Mahmood said on Thursday the provincial government had not lodged any complaint against any official of the Bank of Punjab (BoP) and there was no plan to proceed against his predecessor, Salman Siddique.

Talking to Dawn at the Civil Secretariat, the chief secretary, who is also the BoP chairman, said the provincial government had not blamed anyone for any irregularity in the bank because no probe had so far been conducted into its affairs.

Being a chief secretary of the Punjab, Mr Salman Siddique was also chairman of the BoP whose President Hamesh Khan was sacked last week on charges of irregularities.

The chief secretary said at present a team of the State Bank of Pakistan was conducting a routine audit of the BoP. “We also want a special audit of certain areas of the bank, but we are at present selecting a renowned firm for the purpose,” he said.

The process of selecting the firm and then completion of the special audit would take some time. And all those found guilty of misconduct or corruption would have to face the music, he warned.

He clarified that the provincial government had not lodged any complaint against former BoP president Hamesh Khan with any law-enforcement agency. Hamesh was not being interrogated by the police or any other Punjab agency, he said.

The government, he said, had not sacked any official of the BoP and it had no plan to do so in future.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of the Punjab government said there had been continuous speculative reporting in the press about the BoP, sacking of a large number of its senior officers and inquiries against certain senior government officers. These reports were factually incorrect, he claimed.

The spokesman said the present BoP board of directors had been taking stock of the situation as part of its responsibilities towards the bank and its shareholders.

He said in order to get a clear picture, the board had at its recent meetings thought it appropriate to arrange for a legal and financial audit through reputable auditors who would be presenting their reports in due course of time.

According to him, no specific officer, including former director or government servant, was the focus of these inquiries and audits.

So far as the NAB was concerned, he said, it was looking at the specific case of Harris Steel for the last few months and being a federal agency, it would take its own decision on further proceedings in the matter.