IN 2009 a complete list of bank defaulters was floated in the press and electronic media. The same kind of report was also submitted to the Supreme Court.

It was expected that the apex court will take up the matter earnestly and bring to book the businessmen, political leaders, retired army men, and journalists who were among over 3,300 people who got Rs153.5 billion loans written off from 11 financial institutions between 1999 and 2007.

However, it is disappointing to note that this matter of great national interest has been left in abeyance for some unknown reasons and the defaulters, as well as their counterpart bankers, have been rent scot-free without any accountability.

Since the Supreme Court has just ordered NAB in the containers’ case to either recover the case amount from the accused or in the event of failure to do that bear the markup on its own.

It would be fully justified if the Supreme Court also passed a similar order against the above bank loan defaulters and their accessory financial institutions and ordered NAB or the financial institutions concerned to bear the mark-up on the bungled-up huge amount of Rs152.5 billion if they failed to recover the same in grace time awarded by the court.

Unless quick adjudication is held, it is feared that the nation will lose this precious parcel of national exchequer and that might reflect on the role of the Supreme Court in handling cases according to norms of the law, justice and equity.

MAZHAR BUTT Karachi