SC adjourns loans write-off case indefinitely

Three-judge bench postpones hearing on request of one of the counsels

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Wednesday postponed hearing in a suo motu case with regard to a loan write-off worth Rs54 billion for an indefinite period. A three-judge bench led by Justice Ijazul Ahsan postponed the case on the request of one of the counsels.

The Supreme Court on January 21, 2008 asked the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to report in two weeks details of a scheme it allegedly approved in October 2002 for writing off loans of Rs54 billion owed to commercial banks by business concerns run by some top politicians and other people.

A three-judge bench had taken suo motu action on a report appearing in a section of the press regarding SBP’s approval of a scheme to quietly write off a total of Rs54 billion bank loans.

Based on a secret report submitted to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly, the newspaper reported that 50,000 people including politicians, civil and military business concerns and business tycoons of Karachi, Lahore and other cities had been favoured through the scheme and their outstanding loans had been written off in 2002.

In May 2018, the Supreme Court served notices on 222 beneficiaries who had illegally got their loans written off. The apex court also directed such individuals and companies to submit their replies.

The court then made it clear that all the people who got their loans written off illegally on political basis or otherwise would have to return them to the national exchequer.

The order stated "As per report of the Commission constituted by this Court, action against 222 individuals/ companies (page No.107 of Vol-I of Commission’s Report) had been recommended on account of the fact that the loans were not written-off in accordance with the law.”