Probe into written off loans: Supreme Court approves names of commission members

A three-member bench of the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday approved the names of commission members, which was formed to probe written off loans worth Rs 256 billion from 1971 to 2009. Earlier on May 26 this year, the Supreme Court (SC) noted that how bank loans were written-off despite lapse of Circular 29 of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in 2003, which had been instrumental in writing off loans worth Rs 256 billion from 1971 to 2009.
Consequently, a commission was formed under apex court's former judge Justice Jamshid Ali Khan to oversee the process that how much loans were written off legally in 38 years. During the course of hearing the CJP said in his remarks that it was prerogative of the commission's chairman to appoint members who deemed fit for commission proceedings. The Chief Justice while addressing the Additional Attorney General K.K Agha said that has the government any objection on the nomination of two members (Malik Muhammad Ikram and Ibrar Saeed) for the commission, on which Agha said that no objection from government side was recorded.
On the occasion, SBP counsel Maulvi Iqbal Haider contended that the bank has nominated Tariq Iqbal who is professional Chartered Accountant, but the bench turned down his request by saying that it is discretion of the commission head to nominate or accept any name as member of the commission. The bench was hearing a reference regarding nomination of the members of the Commission, received from former Justice Syed Jamshed Ali, former judge of SC and presently Chairman of the Commission on written off loans.