Gilgit-Baltistan decides to recover Rs800m loans

GILGIT:

Gilgit-Baltistan’s Agriculture Development Bank has decided to recover loans worth Rs800 million given to nearly 19,000 people, said sources. These loans were given during the tenure of former president Pervez Musharraf.

This decision was made because the government has not issued any funds to the bank after it waived these loans eight years ago. These 19,000 defaulters are those who had received loans of a maximum of Rs50,000 and Musharraf during one of his visits to Gilgit had announced that these loans would be written off.

No such notification for writing off the loans has been received by the bank so far, therefore it has no option but to launch a recovery drive, said sources.

“Since there is no notification from the government so recovery will be made from the defaulters,” a source said, adding that the number of people who had received loans from the bank was more than 19,000.

Sources said that the total amount of loans that could be recovered exceeds Rs1 billion if interest were to be added.

They said that the apathy shown by the federal government in issuing a notification has put the bank and the poor people of Gilgit-Baltistan in a predicament as the mortgages are still in the possession of the bank.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2010.