ISLAMABAD          -      Federal Ombudsman Syed Tahir Shahbaz has directed Ministry of Finance and Director General National Savings (CDNS) to take steps for transferring profit of senior citizens and widows against their saving certificates, to their personal accounts into the scheduled banks.

He also directed the authorities to facilitate senior citizens, widows and pensioners as per banking standards. The ombudsman also directed to issue ATM cards to CDNS customers so that they could draw their profits as per their own timings. The directions came as the ombudsman took cognizance of the difficulties of senior citizens and widows during a high-level meeting to review progress on CDNS Reforms Report issued by the Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat (WMS). 

The ombudsman said that CDNS was a reliable source of long-term funding to the government and a widespread distribution network that provides access to protect the savings of senior citizens, widows and pensioners in a rightful manner. He expressed his concerns over the difficulties of senior citizens while getting profit against their saving certificates in the saving centers. Javed Iqbal, Senior Joint Secretary Ministry of Finance and Director General, National Savings (CDNS) Muhammad Khalil gave a detailed briefing on the implementation of CDNS Reforms Report. The representative of Ministry of Finance informed the meeting that although CDNS is a government department but it has been declared autonomous. The Director General CDNS informed that CDNS has 376 branches out of which 153 have been fully computerized and remaining would be automized by the end of December this year. He said Shuhada Family Welfare Accounts, widows, senior citizens and disabled persons have been especially facilitated at the centres. He said that ATM card has been designed and as soon as all branches are computerized, ATMs would be issued to the costumers.  

The ombudsman asked CDNS authorities to adopt banking system at the earliest for provision of proper facilities to senior citizens as per banking standards. He also asked for provision of facilities to the customers in getting profit from any CDNS centre in Pakistan. He said that CDNS must obtain bank accounts of every certificate-holder for transfer of their profit into their scheduled bank accounts. He further directed that automation of all CDNS branches must be completed by the end of December this year.