Hearing the case of written-off loans of Rs 256 billion, Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday observed that the court had to examine the State Bank of Pakistan’s Circular 29 – under which the hefty loans were written off – to determine its constitutional and legal value. A three-member bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani was hearing a suo motu case about the writing-off of loans worth Rs 256 billion loans by various banks between 1971 and 2009.
Appearing on notice, Additional Attorney General KK Agha submitted that a letter had already been written to the federal government about its position on the written-off loans, but a reply was still awaited. Appearing as amicus curiae, Khawaja Haris submitted that the SBP Circular 29 was constitutional and legal, but had been misused for a long time. The chief justice observed that the court just wanted to ensure that loans were not written off under political pressure in the future. KK Agha suggested the court constitute a new commission with the assistance of experts dealing with white-collar crime.
The court welcomed his suggestion and observed that chairman of that commission would be allowed to hire experts in this regard. Agha said the commission should also be directed to submit its report within 90 days instead of 180 days. He said they had already sent the recommendations about the constitution of the commission to the government and were waiting for a response. The chief justice said the court would not interfere in the proceedings of the commission, which would be free to investigate these matters independently.
