CJP Nisar Warns loan defaulters against illegal waivers

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court advised 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.

At the hearing of a suo motu case related 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.

Justice Nisar said, “Every penny will be recovered.”

As per inspection every citizen is in debt of Rs170,000 due to international loan, and recovered amount could be used to repay the country’s debt.

Furthermore he said, “We will instruct the banking courts to wrap up all the cases within six weeks.”

The hearing is 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.