Online/Staff Report
There is exploitation of rest of Pakistani territories by the Punjab province, that goes on and on over a vast scale.
A case of this institutionalised oppression is revealed by the figures –available with Online- regarding distribution of Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) loans to farmers in Punjab, and to farmers in all the rest of the Provinces.
ZTBL favours farmers in Punjab on a massive scale. 81 percent of ZTBL’s agricultural loans in 2015 were given to farmers in Punjab, and the farmers in the rest of the provinces had to manage with their shares of the remaining 19 percent.
According to documents available with Online, ZTBL distributed around Rs95 billion loans to farmers in Punjab during the year 2015, Sindh farmers received loans worth 13.4% of all loans given, KPK farmers 4.2%, AJK and GB farmers 0.4%, and Baluch farmers -winning the prize- with 0.3%.
The majority of the Punjab loans were released to farmers hailing from Bahawalnagar, Bhawalpur, Faisalabad, Jhang, Muzaffargarh, Okara, Sukkur and Vehari.
Around 92.2 percent loans have been recovered from the farmers across Pakistan during 2015. In 2015, ZTBL recovered around 93.6 percent of its loans from Punjab farmers, 86.3 percent from Sindh, 91.7 percent from KPK, 74 percent from Baluchistan, 99.6 from AJK, and 90.1 percent GB farmers.
Around Rs 81 bn and Rs 71 bn agricultural loans were given to farmers by ZTBL during 2014 and 2013 years.
Documents reveal the loans were given at Rs12.5 percent interest rate during 2015, while they recovered at 15 percent interest rate.
It is pertinent to mention here that members of the National Assembly standing Committee for Finance have protested against giving the loans at such higher rates.
MNA Rana Mohammad Hayat urged the government to give loans at lower tariff and said that they should given loans at subsidised rates. The standing Committee had recommended the reduction of the interest rate on giving the loans.