State bank: Businessmen move LHC against defaulters’ list

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Tuesday sought the attorney general’s assistance on petitions from various industrialists and businessmen challenging their inclusion on a list of defaulters issued by the State Bank of Pakistan.

The petitioners, through their counsel, submitted that they had borrowed money from various banks and paid back several instalments. The banks had later moved the banking courts against them over a disagreement on the process of paying back the loans.

The counsel said that the courts had yet to decide many of the recovery suits, but the SBP had put them on the defaulters’ list. He said that his clients could not be declared defaulters until the banking courts decided the suits. The State Bank’s decision violated their fundamental rights, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2013.