President Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KPCCI) Afan Aziz said the province was economically far behind other provinces and was totally ignored. He said traders in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were given Rs31billion bank loans while Rs1200 bank loans were released to traders in Punjab, meaning a person in Punjab was getting Rs15000 loans while a person in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was getting Rs1500 loans, which is blatant injustice towards KP traders.
Aziz was addressing a meeting between KPCCI and Bank of Khyber (BoK) at the chamber. Aziz presided over the meeting, also attended by KPCCI vice president Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, KPCCI executive members and BoK officials. Speaking to the participant during his visit to KPCCI, MD BoK Bilal Mustafa said Rs2 billion loans allocated by provincial government to the small traders and industrialists would soon be disbursed at easy terms and conditions. Aziz said KP lagged behind other provinces, economically and socially, and bank lending to small traders would curb backwardness and poverty to some extent. However, he added the mechanism to acquire bank loans should be easy and simple.
He agreed to a suggestion that a committee should be formed in collaboration with BoK to remove the reservations of loans obtaining loans. Aziz said Rs2 billion loans approved by provincial government should be disbursed as quickly as possible. To a question, BoK MD said the loan scheme was introduce on fixed mark-up rate and thus loans could not be released under Islamic law. MD denied BoK was charging more than other banks.