KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan has completed the scrutiny of some 16,000 contesting candidates through Electronic Credit Information Bureau to identify bank loan defaulters. However, the central bank declined to disclose any information as to how many among them have been found bank defaulters during the scrutiny process.
"So far, the SBP has sent back details of some 16,000 candidates to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after examining them," sources told Business Recorder on Thursday. At the outset of general election activity, the SBP was given the task by the ECP to identify loan defaulters and those candidates who have got loans written off from banks. "The central bank scrutiny was aimed at barring loan defaulters from contesting election," they added.
Officials of the ECP and the SBP are co-ordinating through an online system for last two weeks to ensure timely scrutiny of nominations papers. The State Bank began verification of the aspiring candidates on March 26, 2013 to sort out bank loan defaulters.
Sources said the ECP and SBP are working though a proper and well-designed online system for scrutiny of candidates. "The ECP sends the details of candidates and their close relatives, ie, spouse, daughters and sons to the State Bank through this online system for verification whether the candidate is a bank defaulter or not," they added.
The ECP is sending details of the candidates to the SBP on a daily basis and SBP is replying the same after verification through CIB, a most credible database of the bank borrowers developed by the SBP. "So far SBP has completed scrutiny of some 16,000 candidates, submitted nomination papers to contest the elections and accordingly the details have been sent to the ECP," sources said.
They said the scrutiny process is still under way as the ECP has received over 20,000 nomination papers from candidates willing to contest the elections for National Assembly (NA) and Provincial Assembly (PA) seats. Although, the SBP is making all-out efforts to provide the details of candidates in a short time, however still thousands of forms are pending as uploading of details on the online system by the ECP is taking time.
"The SBP and the ECP are connected online with each other for the verification of the nomination papers and the scrutiny process is continuing in a proper manner," said chief spokesman Inayat Hussain. The verification process is working like a cycle and as the candidate data is entered in the online system, scrutiny gets under way through CIB and details resent to the ECP system online, he added.
He said the SBP's staff deputed at CIB is working till late in night to complete scrutiny of the candidates as soon as possible. "The SBP's CIB department was even operational on Saturdays and Sundays to facilitate the ECP," he added. Talking about the charges of scrutiny, he said the SBP is doing this job in a national interest and will not charge a single penny from the ECP against this service.
He said so far information relating to more than 16,000 candidates has been provided to the ECP. There are many nomination papers in the pipeline and scrutiny process is likely to complete by today or tomorrow, he added. However, he refused to provide scrutiny details. "We are unable to disclose the information relating to credit history or nature of default of candidates as it is a secret information, which cannot be revealed."
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