ISLAMABAD: The top court of the country on Tuesday gave option to 222 loan defaulters to either pay 75% of the principle amount they had borrowed from the national banks or face banking court trials.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday proposed ordering accountability trials against those who do not repay 75% of the principal amount of the wavered loans.
During the hearing of a suo moto case pertaining to illegal waivers of loans amounting to Rs54 billion a three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, suggested two option to defaulters; either pay 75% of the principal amount or face investigation by the banking courts.
“Every penny will be recovered,” remarked the top judge. 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.
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 (Retd) 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.
Mian Saqib Nisar asserted he is ready to put his all efforts to help citizens and that all judges should return their loans.
He said nation’s money should be returned otherwise accountability would be held.
Agencies add: Earlier, CJP had promised to take back from those who had loans written off.
The CJP had asked for details of all those who took loans from government banks and had them written-off. He also asked for details of national and international bank accounts of all those Pakistanis.
The CJP had asked Governor State Bank of Pakistan if there is a way to bring back all the money. Governor SBP informed the court that there is no such clause in ToRs.