Bank employee commits suicide at Karachi’s AKU branch

KARACHI: A Soneri Bank employee has committed suicide at the Aga Khan Hospital’s (AKU) branch after allegedly failing to meet the tough targets given by the administration.

The Soneri Bank spokesperson confirmed the sorrowful incident in which one of its employees committed suicide at the AKU branch on July 30, however, it did not mention the reason for his death.

A Facebook post read, “A banker took his life in the premises of Soneri Bank Limited on duty due to the extreme financial crisis.”

“We can’t even imagine what people are going through in this horrific economic situation in the state. Fuel prices are going higher than the sky, inflation is increasing, unemployment rate has gone beyond the limit but the management of such organizations are snoozing for a long while. The worst thing is Soneri Bank Limited didn’t even mention the reason of death in their post and restricted the comments section so the people couldn’t share their views. This financial suicide is just a beginning if the banks didn’t pay attention to the financial positions of their employees then the situation will become worse. It’s an alarming call.”

Sources said that the deceased employee had been given though targets by the bank administration which he failed to achieve at the end of the month. After failing to achieve the tough targets, he committed suicide at the bank premises, they added.

A statement issued by the bank read, “A tragic incident took place in one of our Karachi branches yesterday, where one of our staff members took his life due to some personal reasons. Our deepest condolences to the grieving family and friends at this difficult time.”

In another statement on Facebook, “Here is a summary of the facts and the next steps on what the bank and its leadership are taking:

• An incident took place at 08:30 hours on the 30th of July at the Soneri Bank Collection Kiosk located at the main Aga Khan University Hospital campus in Karachi resulting in the death of a Soneri employee – Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un
• Soneri Bank is fully supporting local authorities and police in investigating the matter and all related facts leading to the tragedy. The initial evidence suggests that this sad event is related to a personal property related dispute between the employee and a third party. However, the bank will refrain from making any presumptions or inferences and let the investigations take their course
• As the investigation is ongoing, the management of Soneri Bank would like to request everyone to abstain from passing any judgements, respect the sensitivity of the matter and most importantly consider the impact this will have on the family of the deceased
• Soneri Bank has appointed a special liaison to provide support to the family of the deceased to help them in this testing time