ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance directed the State Bank of Pakistan to provide details of over Rs20 million loans written off over the past five years as Rana Hayat Khan wanted to know which law permits banks to write off loans and whether the law needs changes to prevent its misuse.

A meeting of the committee presided over by Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh on Tuesday was informed that under the financial institutions recovery law, cases for recovery of loans are filed in banking courts and the high courts.

Mr Hayat had brought up the issue through a calling attention notice in the National Assembly, which was forwarded to the standing committee.

The meeting was informed that around 48,000 cases involving around Rs421 billion were pending in the courts. The law also provides mechanism for out-of-court settlements and some banks were availing this option.

However, further details were not shared with the members of the committee to maintain the secrecy of the banking sector.

The committee was informed that the China Overseas Port Shipping Holding Company, Pakistan, has not been issued security clearance by the ministry of interior.

The meeting discussed the matter raised by Asad Umar of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf who wanted to know if the interior ministry had issued the no-objection certificate (NOC) to the company.

The Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) was directed to respond to the query, “We have heard of reports that the company has been operating in a single room.”

And officials of the SECP acknowledged that security clearance was not yet given.

“This is a fact, we did not get security clearance for the China Overseas Port Shipping Holding Company, Pakistan,” Shaukat Hussein, Executive Director of the SECP, told the committee.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2018