PESHAWAR: The Managing Director, Bank of Khyber, Bilal Mustafa has said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has allocated Rs 2 billion for the small traders and industrialists and expressed the hope that loans will be disbursed on easy terms and conditions very shortly.

Addressing businessmen and industrialists at Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) here on Monday, he said that the loans could not be released under Islamic law.

He rejected the impression that the Bank of Khyber (BoK) was charging high interest and markup as compared to other banks. Speaking on the occasion, president SCCI, Afan Aziz said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province economically and socially lagged behind other parts of the country and hoped that the provision of soft loans to small traders and industrialists would help bring down backwardness and poverty to some extent in the province.

He urged the formation of easy and simple mechanism for loans. Aziz agreed to the suggestion that a committee should be formed in collaboration with the Bok to remove bottlenecks in acquiring loans. BoK Executive Director, Mir Javed Hashmat was also present on the occasion.