The Lahore High Court (LHC) here on Monday hearing a petition against written off loans of Rs 50.84 billion during the last two years directed the petitioner to come up with arguments on next hearing whether the petition was maintainable as Supreme Court was also hearing an identical matter.
The court issued this direction to petitioner's counsel Noshab Khan, after counsel for state bank informed the court that suo motu proceedings against written off loans were pending before the apex court so the same matter could not be heard by the high court. The court adjourned further hearing till December 2 next and asked the petitioner's counsel to satisfy the court on the maintainability of the petition.
The petition was filed by Imran Khan, resident of Pakpattan, through Noshab A Khan Advocate in which he pleaded that commercial banks written off loans worth Rs 50.84 billion over a period of two years to well connected people and companies. He submitted that over the past 40 years, loans worth Rs 256 billion had been written off in the country.
He submitted that it must be ascertained whether the people and firms in question actually went bankrupt or they had the loans forgiven due to patronage. The petitioner contended that the repercussions of this `writing off' loans were evident from the present state of country's economy and growth of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs).
"The NPLs of banking sector itself increased by 137 percent in the last two years, reflecting extremely poor risk management and doubtful loans disbursement" he added.