ISLAMABAD: The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) is going to recruit more senior executives despite overstaffing.

During the briefing to the sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday, NBP President Syed Ahmed Iqbal Ashraf admitted overstaffing in the bank but maintained that the existing staff is `incapable` of performing certain jobs.

Responding to a question of PAC member Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho about overstaffing in the banlc, Ashraf said, `When we compare our strength with other banks like HBL and UBL, we can say we are overstaffed.

But he defended fresh recruitments and said, `In order to achieve the desired results, you have right kind of people for right job.

Earlier, the NBP president told the committee that the bank had recovered $50 million from the embezzled amount of NBP Bangladesh.

He said the cases of some NBP officials deputed at Bangladesh and some at Karachi have been referred to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). He hoped that by 2016 the NBP would recover at least 35 per cent of the total amount.

As per a report submitted to a National Assembly panel earlier this year, the NBP management chargesheeted 57 employees in connection with Rs18.5 billion loss in Bangladesh operations of the bank.

The committee also directed the NBP to submit the report regarding the recoveries from the Bangladesh to the PAC.

The committee also took up an audit para related to Rs15.6 billion outstanding amount of the State Bank of Pakistan against the government and the private financial sector.

The audit report pointed out that financial institutions namely Federal Bank for Cooperative, Sindh Provincial Cooperative Bank, National Commercial Bank, NBP Bangladesh, UBL, HBL, ADBP, IDBP and HBFC have to pay an outstanding amount of Rs15.6 billion.

SBP`s Deputy Governor Riaz Riazuddin told the committee that the recoveries have been made and the financial institutions are gradually paying off the loans.

Secretary Finance Waqar Masood Khan told the committee that this was the amount the SBP had loaned to the banks before the fall of Dhaka in 1971.

He said the amount is shown in the outstanding balance of the banks like HBL, UBL and NBP with the expectation that some day it would be recovered.

He said some outstanding amounts relate to the government of India, which means before the partition of 1947. On this, Ms Pechuho remarked that `such figures should not be tabled before this (PAC) forum`