KARACHI, June 13: The present special criminal laws of the country lack any proper remedy or specific provision regarding the recovery of pledged stock , a prominent banking lawyer, Saalim Salam Ansari, said on Sunday.

He was delivering a lecture at a seminar on "Removal of Pledged Stock(s), Criminal Remedies and Special Laws" organized by the Pakistan Institute of Banking Studies in a hotel.

However, he said, under the prevailing criminal laws, if any offence was committed pertaining to the removal of pledged stocks, the remedy available was to prefer a criminal complaint or lodge an FIR before the Banking Court (Special Offences), as provided under the "Offences in respect of Banks Ordinance, 1984."

He said as no special remedy was available regarding the offences, so by virtue of insertion of proposed sub-section (7) in the section 20 of the Financial Institutions (recovery of Finance) Ordinance-2001, through an amendment, "Financial Institutions (Recovery of finances) Amendment(s) Ordinance-2004," is suggested. After the adoption of this system the incidence of such offences would come down, he said. -APP