Coming clear: In-camera briefing offered on loan beneficiaries

Law minister denies claims of writing off any loans

ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Tuesday once again denied writing off any loans in the past five years while offering an in-camera briefing to the lawmakers to share details of persons and companies who were granted loans by the National Bank of Pakistan during the said period.

“We have absolutely no intention to hide anything,” Law Minister Zahid Hamid told the Senate. His comments came in response to a motion moved by Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini from Balochistan National Party-Mengal regarding the names of persons or firms who obtained loans of five million rupees and above from NBP during the past five years.

On September 6, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Chaudhry Tanvir Khan posed a question in the upper house seeking names of the persons who obtained loans of Rs5 million or more from NBP and the number of cases in which the said loans were repaid and those that were waived off.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had in a written reply stated that identity of the persons who had obtained loans was protected under Section 33 A of the Banking Companies Ordinance 1962 and section 9 of Protection of Economic Reform Act 1992 but had admitted that loans of Rs360 billion were given, out of which Rs271 billion were still outstanding.

Law Minister Zahid Hamid in Tuesday’s session said the required information regarding loans can be shared in an in-camera session. He added that private banks in recent months issued details of the loans granted from 1990 to 2015. “But this is a separate matter and related constitutional constraints are there.”

Later, Vice President Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sherry Rehman submitted a petition to the Senate for the reconstitution of the National Security Committee of Parliament, as demanded in the joint statement of parliamentary party leaders’ meeting held on Monday.

“The government should harness the power of democracy and institutionalise a consultative mechanism by reconstituting the National Security Committee of Parliament,” stated the senator while reading out the petition.

“Parliament is the heart of democracy and committees form the heart of the Parliament,” she added.

Terming the National Security panel ‘very important’ the senator added that the panel has taken some very important decisions in the past including the framing of new terms of engagement with US and ISAF.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2016.