By repute, Pakistan's banking can survive Covid-19 crisis with modification.

Byline: Khalil Ahmed

Interview with Mr Hamad Rasool Bhullar - an analyst

PAGE: Tell me something about yourself, please:

Hamad Rasool Bhullar: I am a freelance consultant/trainer and financial advisor with special reference to ethical and Islamic financial system, for almost 20 years, both in public and private sectors in addition to being a passionate trainer on management and motivation to change the lives of the youth.

I have a strong belief that we can shape our Pakistani community into a very efficient and productive community just through the right mix of training and motivation, while preserving the natural ethics and morality in our society.

I did my graduation from Hailey College of Commerce in 1990, after that I completed six post-graduations in Finance, Accounting, Economics, IT and Corporate Law. After graduation I worked for an accountancy firm for almost 12 years, before joining a public sector organization. Have also over 27 years of experience in training the banking courses (both conventional and Islamic finance) in addition to being on the Board of an Investment Bank for almost 4 years (2005-2008).

PAGE: How would you comment on the performance of the banking sector during the prevalent pandemic?

Hamad Rasool Bhullar: So far it has been a very difficult to operate by the entire banking sector, almost 10 percent of the commercial banking branches got closed, though temporarily due to COVID-19 infections, and a large number of banking staff got the COVID-19 positive only due to the careless effects of the general public behavior. Additionally the commercial banks have reduced the banking counters by almost 20 percent as preventive tool. This is going to affect the performance of not only our banking sector but globally as well. However a major part of the other sectors is also affected shrinking many global economies. Average operating cost of the banks has also increased firstly due to the additional arrangements at social distancing and dis-infecting the entry points and secondly due to the average fall in the transactions in other sectors.

PAGE: What is your take on the robustness of banks in Pakistan in meeting coronavirus havoc?

Hamad Rasool Bhullar: Pakistan's banking sector has always been greatly on strong footings, as the world knows from the 2007 -08 Financial Crisis, Pakistan was among the least affected countries with minimum disasters. I have great hope this time as well, most of the banks have taken it as an...