A pound of flesh: Police proposes legislation against loan sharks

Investigation traces back crimes such as murder and kidnapping to money-lending

PESHAWAR:

The provincial police have proposed a draft legislation which if enacted into law by the provincial government would stop illegal loan sharks from operating and harassing their debtors.

A handout issued on Friday stated IGP Nasir Khan Durrani, through an official letter, has asked Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to table the bill in the assembly on a priority basis. According to Durrani, the practice of providing illegal loans at exorbitant interest rates and the subsequent harassment of debtors is adversely affecting society.

Investigation into a number of heinous crimes like murder, attempted murder, robbery, kidnapping and drug peddling have been traced back to complications arising from money borrowed from loan sharks, the handout added.

With the erstwhile West Pakistan Money Lenders Ordinance 1960 now redundant and the complete absence of any other regulatory mechanism, illegal money-lenders continue to operate with impunity.

The police have received numerous complaints from citizens being tormented by them and thus the IGP formed a committee of senior police officials to create the draft bill based on the restorative justice theory, which focuses on the needs of the victims and the offenders. According to the theory, victims take an active role in the process of justice, while offenders are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions.

The handout added that after taking feedback from field commanders into consideration, the committee submitted its draft to IGP Durrani. The bill aims to prohibit an individual or entity, other than federal or provincial government approved banks, finance corporations and cooperative societies, from lending money.

In an effort to control law and order and improve security, the K-P police have forwarded four different draft legislations to the provincial government over the past year. In addition to the bill to tackle illegal loans, other draft legislations were the K-P Restriction of Rented Buildings (Security) Act 2014, K-P Restriction of Hotels Restriction (Security) Act 2014 and K-P Security of Sensitive & Vulnerable Places and Establishment (Security) Ordinance 2014. Of these three, the first two have been passed into law.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2014.