October 30, 2007	Tuesday	Shawwal 17, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Oct 29: Speakers here on Monday called for a serious effort to overhaul the legal and administrative system of the country which they said inherited the colonial pattern of governance and safeguarded interests of the elite.

They strongly criticized the recent cases of writing off the loans worth Rs.53 billions and demanded recovery of all siphoned off loans. They demanded that the details of all the written off loans be made public and presented in periodical reports in the parliament.

Barrister Zafarullah Khan of Pakistan Muslim League (N), Aasim Sajjad Akhtar of People Rights Movement (PRM) and renowned scholar Mohammad Saeed Alrai shared their insights at a seminar ‘Politics of writing loans off’ organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).

Mr Zafarullah lamented over prevailing culture of writing off the loans of powerful elites in the country despite much-taunted slogans of transparency, good governance and accountability by the present regime under General Musharraf. About news stories regarding writing off loans of 53 billion rupees of powerful elites, which included two sitting provincial chief ministers, ex-bureaucrats and retired generals, he said it was indeed a continuation of the corporate frauds and squandering of taxpayers’ money as happened in the privatization of steel mills, sugar crisis, cement and flour scams in the present government to benefit powerful groups and individuals to achieve its ulterior political motives.

Apart from those political motives, the other key reason is government’s plan to facilitate the banks and other lending institutions to clean up their balance sheets to make them ready for privatization at throwaway prices, he added. Mr Khan also questioned the silent and inadequate role of regulators in the process, which include State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Security Exchange commission of Pakistan (SECP) and board of directors of concerned banks and lending institutions, adding, that all the details of such politically manipulated decisions remained hidden from public eye to avoid public pressure and criticism. He demanded the government to recognise public access to information as a basic right of the citizens and address lacunas in the Freedom of Information Ordinance (FOI) 2002 and Cabinet Division Rules.

Aasim Sajjad Akhtar demanded for reforming the legal and administrative system of the country, which, he said, inherited the colonial patterns of governance and deliberately facilitated its allies to undermine its own laws to get such benefits without any legal scrutiny. He said the issue of writing the loans off be seen in the larger context of system of power functioning and facilitating the rich in the country, adding, that by virtue of access to state apparatus the ruling elite had an ample opportunity to get extra concessions as well as benefits.

Talking about the recent loans off by the government, he said it was the rule not the exception as the state system was built to facilitate such abuses. He also compared the present post- colonial structure of Pakistani state with that of the colonial powers which facilitated the ruling elite of the country to systematically use and abuse their power to maintain a status- quo.

Mr Asim said contrary to the west, in the developing nations like Pakistan the political power was used to gain the economic power for consolidating the prevailing power structure, adding, that ensuring the rule of law would not solve our problems as the laws were also part of the problems and needed to be overhauled.

Presenting an Islamic perspective in details, Mohammad Saeed Alrai said there was no provision of writing off loans in the Quran and Hadith and that even in his last sermon Mohammad (pbuh) said that the loans had to be re-paid. Quoting different Hadiths, he said that loan default is termed a ‘zulm’ and dacoity.

Mr Alari demanded recovery of all written off loans since 1947 and called all the loan defaulters dacoits. He also urged the government to blacklist all the loan defaulters and their family members and not allow them to take part in the elections.