MIANWALI: In a rare drive against the illegal money lending business, district police have so far arrested more than 50 people.

District Police Officer Sarfraz Khan Virk launched the campaign on public complaints and after hearing tales how this menace had ruined low income families.

The DPO started the crackdown by making announcements in all mosques and in each nook and corner of the district beside distributing handbills, erecting banners and hoardings on roads with his personal mobile number.

He urged the affected people to send him their messages and information. Soon people stepped forward to report their miseries with their respective police stations beside sending messages to the DPO. Within a month, more than 50 cases were registered against money lenders in different police stations of the district and most of notorious money lenders were nabbed.

A money lender of Mianwali city -- Sardar Tauqir Khan — was booked under Section 3 of the Money Lending Act on a complaint but he seriously injured the complainant with a gunfire. The local police retaliated by arresting him promptly.

It was perhaps once in the blue moon in the district that people marked their satisfaction over local police by taking out different rallies and reached the DPO office to pay thanks over his crackdown against money lenders.

Each FIR against money lenders had heart throbbing story about forcible grabbing of their belongings by money lenders, including vehicles, farm land, ornaments and houses etc which valued more than the loan amount.

Bashir Ahmed of Paki Shah Mardan, a contractor by profession, told Dawn he got Rs300,000 from a money lender of the area to meet his business needs but despite paying back the original amount he was under debt. The money lender forcibly snatched his car.

The announcement of the DPO proved for him a blessing in disguise as the money lender was behind the bar and he had got back his car.

DPO Sarfraz Khan Virk told Dawn that he was apprised about existence of this menace which shocked him and he stepped forward to take action under the law of the land. He said he was informed that some salaried people were so helpless before money lenders that they had handed over their cheque books and some retired persons their pension books to the money lenders who collected their installments directly from banks.

Bashir Ahmed Malik, former president of the District Bar, fears that money lenders may surface again after the transfer of the DPO.

He urges the law makers to revisit the Money Landing Act by inserting maximum punishment to eradicate this menace from society.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play