Broken promises: Borrowers of forgiven loans declared defaulters

The loans provided to the people of G-B had been written off by Musharraf in 2007.

GILGIT: Beneficiaries of loans provided to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan during Pervez Musharraf’s time have been declared defaulters despite a promise by the former president to have the loans written off.

These loans – amounting to   a maximum of Rs50,000 – had been written off by the former president during one of his visits to the region in 2007 but the lack of written orders to the banks has left the issue undecided, making the beneficiaries defaulters.

The issue of the recovery of these loans surfaced last week after Zarai Taraqqiyati Bank (ZTB) and National Bank of Pakitan (NBP) decided to recover these loans on the grounds that they have not been officially informed about any decision to write off the debts.

It has also been revealed that more than 70 per cent of the ‘defaulters’ are women and that over 100 of all the beneficiaries have already passed away.

The officials in the NBP and ZTB said that they had not received any official order and hence it was their duty to collect the money from all of the 19,000 people who had received the loans. “If we had got official orders, we wouldn’t have acted against them,” said an official in NBP. The officials in ZTB however said that their recovery drive did not include those who received loans valued at less than Rs50,000.

However, a couple of beneficiaries who claimed to have received letters for recovery from banks in Gilgit negate these claims.

The officials said unless they receive official orders, the beneficiaries are defaulters as long as they do not return the money.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2010.