It was the only fully functional Muslim Bank on th...

It was the only fully functional Muslim Bank on the land of Pakistan. On August 14, 1947, Allied Bank was identified with the Pakistan movement. Many of its board of directors were prominent Muslim League leaders. Jallandhar and Ludhiana branches were attacked by rioters because of Muslim staff appointed in these branches. All the branches in India were closed donw when the Pakistani flags were hoisted on them. With this, the bank lost almost 6 branches along with a lot of capital and deposits. During 1948 new branches were opened in Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Sialkot, Sargodha, Jhang, Gujranwala and Kasur. Later on, its branches spread to Multan and Quetta as well. At that time, the bank financed trade in cloth and food grains and thus maintained consumer's supplies during the riot-effected early months of 1948. Australasia Bank made a profit of PKR 50,000 in 1947-48.

In August 1948, Australasia Bank became the first Pakistani bank to successfully negotiate and open L/C for a Sialkot-based importer of books. So it also made correspondence relations with Midland (UK), Chase Manhattan (USA) and Lloyds (India).

Other than providing the treasury functions of Federal Government of Pakistan, it also acted as banker to several local government bodies and to the University of the Punjab during this period. Treasury functions were taken over by National Bank of Pakistan in 1949. In 1950-51, the chairman was replaced by his own brother Khawaja Sharif Baksh.

During 1955-56, Naseer A. Sh. became the Chairman of the Board and close working relationship was forged between the new chairman and the managing director. This partnership proved in modernizing the bank's operations and consolidating its financial position.

In 1963, ABL had 29 branches in various cities. Its deposits were 89 million and advances were 66 million. Bank was mainly concerned with general banking and trade financing (including foreign exchange transactions). It helped a lot in development of small and medium-sized business houses. These included Nishat, Crescent, Pak Cement, Haroon Traders, Takht Bhai Sugar, Insaf, Punjab Soap, Pak Fruit and Saboor Oil Mills etc.

In 1964, 13 new branches were opened including 3 in East Pakistan. In 1965, 17 new branches were opened and over 83% of the gross profit for the year was earmarked for development expenditure in connection with opening of new branches.

In 1966 bank opened 26 new branches and doubled its reserved funds. For the first time in history, its advances raised to PKR 160 million and deposits increased by almost 58% exceeding PKR 232 million mark. In 1966, its Central Office was built in Karachi but Head Office remaining at Shah Chiragh Building, Lahore.

16 new branches were opened in 1967 and 20 in 1968. Likewise, the bank's funds increased gradually with these new openings. 21 new branches were opened in 1971. But, due to the separation of East Pakistan, 51 branches were lost by the bank which was a big loss.

Allied Bank: Public Sector Years (1974-91)
Under the Nationalization Act of 1974, 14 scheduled banks were taken over by the government. Australasia Bank's board of directors was dissolved and the bank was renamed as Allied Bank of Pakistan Limited. Sarhad Bank, Lahore Commercial Bank and Pakistan Bank Limited were merged into Australasia Bank. At the time of this merger, ABL was second highest among all the banks which were nationalized in 1974.

Allied Bank's first executive board was constituted of Iqbal A. Rizvi as President, Ajmal Khalil as Joint President and Khadim Hussain Siddique as member. In 1974, I.D. Junejo and Safdar Abbas Zaidi also joined the board. 116 new branches were opened in 1974 and ABL started participating in the commodity operation program of the government.