ISLAMABAD: Several banks in the country have written off loans amounting to Rs 807 million for 42 beneficiaries during the period between 2008 and 2012.
Documents related to the Finance Division reveal that out of 42 borrowers; 23 hailed from Sindh, a majority of them from Karachi; 16 from Punjab, most of them from Lahore, Gujaranwala and Faisalabad while three belonged to the federal capital Islamabad.
The Standard Chartered Bank wrote off loans of 18 borrowers, Faysal Bank wrote off loans of six borrowers, United Bank Limited wrote off loans of five, Habib Bank Limited, Summit Bank, the Bank of Punjab and the Citibank two while KASB Bank Limited, MCB Bank Limited, Allied Bank Limited, Habib Metro Bank and NIB Bank wrote off loans of one borrower each. Documents disclosed that in eight cases, the banks had taken the plea for writing off the loans that costumer was in severe financial crisis while in three cases the customer either belonged to influential family, judicial background or had old relationship with the bank.
Standard Chartered Bank wrote off loans of people namely; Sughra Mazhar, Muhammad Rafiq, Sheikh Muhammad Nasarullah, Muhammad Nazeer, Abdul Rashid, Tasneem Amin, Ravin, Muhammad Aslam, Nazir Ahmad Tonio, S Salman Hassan, Ayaz Khan, Afshan Tariq Junejo and Syed Mukhtar Hussain Rizvi, all belonged to Karachi; Abdul Qayyum, M Ishfaq Jamil and Hamid Rasool Khan hailed from Gujranwala and Lahore while M Fawad and Ayub Durrani came from Islamabad.
Faysal Bank Limited wrote off the loans of Faiza Faiz Khan, Amir Fayyaz Sheikh, Ali Fayyaz Sheikh, Assad F Sheikh and Umar Jahanzaib belonged to Lahore while Yasmeen Tariq from Karachi. Interestingly, Faiza Faiz Khan, Amir Fayyaz Sheikh and Ali Fayyaz Sheikh have the same residential address, i.e. 82 Arif Jan Road Cantt Lahore and the bank gives the justification that the loan was for Kohinoor Mills Limited to support the company financially in 2005 which defaulted due to continuous losses being faced by the company during 2008-11. Then FBL restructured the loan in September 2011wherein the borrower was allowed repayment over a period of two years with waiver of accrued /future mark up on timely repayment of principal liability. The mark up against the said loan was waived upon satisfactory adjustment of principal liability and as per approval terms.
United Bank Limited wrote of loans of Ebrahim Abbas, Akbarali Yousafali and Athar Haneef Naseem Sheikh from Karachi and Muhammad Bilal and Saqib Mehmood Butt from Faisalabad and Lahore respectively. Habib Bank Limited wrote off loans of Syed Qalander Hussain and Muhammad Mobin Khan hailing from Lahore and Karachi respectively. Summit Bank wrote off the loans of Haji Saifullah Khan and Muhammad Aslam Motiwala from Lahore and Karachi.
Bank of Punjab wrote off loans of Faisal Farooq and Khalid Ahmad Khokhar who belonged to Lahore and Multan. Citibank wrote off the loans of Nasir.
