–CJP says 222 defaulters should either pay 75% of principal amount or face cases in banking courts
–Says recovered amount could be used to repay Pakistan’s international loans
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave option to 222 loan defaulters to either pay 75% of the principal amount they had borrowed from the national bank or face banking court trials.
During the hearing of a suo motu case pertaining to illegal waivers of loans amounting to Rs54 billion a three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, suggested two options to defaulters — either pay 75% of the principal amount or face investigation by the banking courts.
“Every penny will be recovered,” remarked Chief Justice Nisar. Observing that every citizen was in debt of Rs170,000 due to international loan, he said the recovered amount could be used to repay the country’s debt.
“We will instruct the banking courts to wrap up all the cases within six weeks,” the top judge said, adding that the court may decide a markup itself.
The hearing was adjourned till Wednesday.
In an earlier hearing, the apex court had sought concise statements from 222 individuals and companies which illegally got their loans written off between 1971 and 2009.
Taking cognisance of a letter written by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain in 2011, the apex court had formed a judicial commission, led by Justice (r) Jamshed Ali, to probe the waivers.
The commission probed over 700 cases in which Rs84 billion worth of banks loans were written off from 1971 to 2009. In its 13-volume report, the commission pointed out that apart from individuals, big businesses also got their loans written-off.
It said a number of politicians availing loan waivers may be much higher than the number appearing in written-off loans figures. It also claimed that influential groups did exercise pressure on banks, but there was no direct evidence in this regard as the evidence may have been destroyed at the initial stages.
