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ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Rules of Procedures and Privileges on Friday decried a lending policy of commercial financial institutions barring parliamentarians from obtaining credit cards or drawing loans, and demanded that the State Bank explain the rationale behind this policy.
The issue was raised on a question of privilege raised by MNA Ghulam Sarwar Khan who wanted to know why banks avoided giving loans to politicians. MNA Shazia Marri of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) raised a similar question, asking why commercial banks did not issue parliamentarians credit cards.
A meeting of the committee, chaired by Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon, expressed displeasure over the attitude of financial institutions in this regard. Mr Noon said that he had learned that of around 1,000 elected legislators — MNAs, senators and MPAs — only 24 had credit cards issued to them.
State Bank asked to explain rationale behind lending policy of commercial banks
Ms Marri said the issue did not revolve around a certain political party or the opposition in the assembly, but pertained to the dignity of parliamentarians who, she added, were responsible citizens of the country and represented the people of Pakistan.
Mr Sarwar said that even the term used by the banks to deny them loans — “politically exposed person” — was humiliating. “If politics is a crime, why is an MNA equivalent to a grade-22 officer under the law,” he asked.
Later talking to journalists, Mr Sarwar said that most banks were in cahoots with the top leaders of all political parties who frequently got their loans rescheduled and later got them written off.
“I applied for a car loan and after repeated inquiries my case was rejected,” he said, adding that even the bank that had the official accounts of members of parliament did not issue credit cards to MNAs or senators.
Several members of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) joined the protesting lawmakers, and MNA Najaf Abbas Sial said that all financial details of parliamentarians had to be filed with the Election Commission of Pakistan and the media regularly held them up to scrutiny. This kind of inquiry was not faced in any other category of employment in the country, he added.
He said: “It was all in the State Bank’s policies regarding risks, and the finance ministry was also responsible for it.”
The committee then directed the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank to prepare a policy regarding the issuance of credit cards to parliamentarians and submit a report to the committee within 15 days.
The committee decided to postpone questions of privilege moved by several MNAs, including one by MNA Ayesha Gulalai about a malicious social media campaign directed at her.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Chaudhry Khadim Hussain, Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk, Rana Umer Nazir Khan, Chaudhry Bilal Ahmed Virk, Najaf Abbas Siyal, Azhar Qayyum Nahra, Kiran Haider, Maiza Hameed, Shagufta Jumani, Nawab Muhammad Yousuf Talpur, Ghulam Sarwar Khan and Asiya Nasir.
Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2017
