The Supreme Court has called a report from the State Bank of Pakistan about Rs 54 billion bank loans reportedly written off by the outgoing government in the last five years.
The court had taken suo motu notice of an English-language newspaper report dated October 23, 2007 that 50,000 influential persons got Rs 53.499 billion bank loans written off on the basis of a decision taken by the government's financial team in October 2002.
The court had sent a notice to the chief editor of the newspaper to submit details of the news item, but none of the representatives of the newspaper appeared before the court on Monday. The report claimed that two outgoing provincial chief ministers and their families having big business concerns were among the beneficiaries.
The court again sent a notice to the chief editor of the newspaper to submit details of the news item, which was said to be based on a secret report, sent to the Public Accounts Committee for deliberations. A three-member bench comprising senior judge Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Qaim Jan Khan and Justice Mian Mohammad Farooque heard the case and directed the State Bank of Pakistan to submit its report.