A division bench of the Sindh High Court on Friday directed the State Bank of Pakistan to furnish formulated policy in respect of loan defaulters which is to be adopted by banks in performance of duties and loan recoveries.
The division bench comprising Justice Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Justice Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi directed this while hearing petition filed by alleged bank defaulter seeking protection from harassment of loan recovery departments of different commercial banks.
When hearing resumed Advocate Iqbal Hyder filed power on behalf of State Bank. He submitted all possible measures were adopted by SBP as guideline in respect of loan recovery policy of banks. He also submitted that SBP, which was earlier directed to submit list of defaulters whose finance up to Rs 5 million loan are written off, would not be in a position to furnish said list as these have been written off by respective banks in respect of their customers whose loans have been written off.
The division bench order said without touching other aspects of case, respondents who have not filed counter affidavits are directed to file the same within 15 days. However, counsel appearing for SBP is directed to furnish formulated policy in respect of loan defaulters which is to be adopted by respondent banks in performance of duties. Interim order to continue till next date of hearing ie August 19, 2008.
Haider Rizvi, Kashaf Paracha and Tahmasp Razvi appeared for petitioner, while AIG (Legal) Anwar Subhani, SHO PS Kharadar Altaf Hussain, Additional SHO Muhammad Javaid and Investigation Officer Muhammad Azam of PS Samanabad, ABN Amro's counsel Sajid Zahid, Standard Chartered Bank Counsel Liaquat Merchant and Naveed-ul-Haq, counsel for NIB were present.
Petitioner Anwar Mahmood moved against Standard Chartered, ABN Amro, NIB, Habib Askari banks submitting he availed credit card and personal loan facilities of said banks and had been making regular payments since 2000 but defaulted in 2007 when he suffered loss of about Rs 9 million due to a market fraud.
Having paid bulk of principal amount, he sought relaxation in mark-up but banks continued to demand compound interest raising outstanding amount to about Rs 3 million.
The bank recovery department started making threatening calls and sent teams to his residence in Karachi to harass him and his family members. He sought protection from police but finding no respite he moved SHC seeking protection.
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