November 8, 2001	Thursday	Shaba’an 21, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the State Bank to explain why it was intervening in a loan-default dispute between UBL and Redco Textile Mills owned by the Saifur Rehman family.

Redco Textile Mills has complained to the apex court that it approached UBL to get its loan rescheduled, but the bank, which originally agreed to reschedule its loan, asked it to approach the State Bank.

The SBP, however, refused to intervene on the ground that the dispute was between UBL and Redco.

Saifur Rehman and his family members own Redco Textile Mills, which has an outstanding loan liability of Rs916 million. They are being prosecuted on the charge of “wilful default”.

Saifur Rehman, the former chairman of the defunct Ehtesab Bureau, and his younger brother, Mujeebur Rehman, are in custody and their younger brother has been declared absconder.

The SC bench, comprising Justice Mohammad Bashir Jehangiri, Justice Munir A. Sheikh and Rana Bhagwandas, took notice of delay in filing of the appeal by Redco, which was time barred by 46 days.

Advocate Shahid Hamid, counsel for Saifur Rehman, stated that his client had obtained a loan of Rs360 million from United Bank, but he could not pay back the loan as the textile industry had been badly hit by curl leaf virus crisis.

Justice Bashir Jehangiri, head of the bench, observed that there was not any crisis in the textile industry. He remarked that problems started only when it was time to return the debt.

Redco counsel submitted that Redco was paying back loan to UBL and it had never stopped repayments. UBL, he argued, had refused providing working capital to Redco when the Ehtesab Bureau had started investigations into misuse of authority by UBL officials.

The bank had also refused to issue a no objection certificate to Redco to get working capital from other banks, he said and added that in order to run the project, Redco had pumped another Rs150 million into the project.

Shahid Hamid prayed to the court that a notice be issued to the SBP because UBL had been asking Redco to approach the SBP, and when Redco had approached the SBP, the bank had refused to intervene on the pretext that the matter was between the two parties.

The court will resume hearing of the matter on Nov 16.