I love continuity of democracy but @ what cost..??

The crisis of governance in the country has reached catastrophic proportions. Total absence of safety and security of life and property, the crumbling infra-structure, non-deliverance of the state institutions, the misery of poverty and unemployment, the destruction of agricultural economy and now the flood disaster, absence of social, political and economic justice at all levels has rendered the once peaceful and prosperous country in an extremely unhappy and vulnerable. Nepotism, favoritism, manipulation and corruption by the present regime and the gross abuse of power have strangled all efforts by the civil society to bring an improvement. Economic experts fear immediate prospect of famine and eventual economic implosion due to floods, which caused estimated US$43 billion losses to the economy of the country. We currently owe US$55 billion to external creditors, which is equivalent to almost 32% of GDP. Pakistan has boosted its defence budget to 130 billion Rupees, almost $7.8 billion (ranked 23rd in the world).  If we only look at the loan default issue the total amount of the bank loans to the Industrialists, military men, bureaucrats and politicians is equal to the two installments of Kerry Luger Assistance (US $ 1.5 Billion available each of the next five years) to Pakistan. What is harm to collect this amount from corrupt people and invest on the betterment of the poor people of Pakistan in health, education, transportation and other fundamental needs of the civilized souls of this land? Total amount of write-offs in nine years remain at around 0.03 percent of the total assets of the banking sector of Pakistan. The loan write-offs stand at around 250 billion rupees from 2000-2008, Out of this, 90 billion rupees is the principal amount, while the remaining 160 billion rupees is the mark-up. On an average, this amount of annual loan write-offs comes to around 0.03 percent in nine years, which remains well below the acceptable regional and global level of 1.0-1.5 percent in such cases. SBP data says that the total assets of the banking sector remain around 6.43 trillion rupees as on March 2010. In 2000, the size of the banking asset was around 2.2 trillion rupees.

In 2009, Pakistan’s five major banks, UBL, HBL, ABL, NBP, and MCB Bank, waived off around 9.5 billion rupees worth of loans, according to the official data. The UBL wrote off loans worth 3.76 billion rupees, the HBL 2.46 billion, ABL 2.09, NBP 0.64 billion, while the MCB Bank around 0.55 billion. In the comparative terms, the amount of loan write-offs remains negligible. Analysts say that the non-performing loans remain one of the most controversial issues in Pakistan, especially since the early 1990s. Powerful political and business families have been accused of massive loan defaults and then using their clout to get them scrapped off the books, mostly by the state-run bank, many of which have been privatized since then. One of the story of The News, Islamabad says that according to the National Assembly Secretariat record, the Industrialists, military men and politicians have got loans of over Rs100 billion written off from banks since 1985. A big chunk of loans was written off during the regime of former President Pervez Musharraf. The beneficiaries also included politicians-cum-industrialists and a group of the print media that later joined the electronic media.

As many as 1,000 influential businessmen and Army men had a total of Rs18 billion loans written off by the government-owned banks during the first three years of the military government. A mind-boggling sum of Rs30 billion in loans was written off between 1985-2002, benefiting the top politicians, military men and powerful industrial groups of the country. The list was compiled by the then caretaker government of Moin Qureshi in 1993.

In 2007, the auditor general of Pakistan had revealed in a report that during the period 2002-2007, loans worth Rs54 billion were written off by the Musharraf government. Thus, total figure had reached Rs85 billion. But, now the recent official report presented before the NA revealed that the total figure of written off loans had finally crossed Rs100 billion.

As per the list majority of the NRO beneficiaries have been bureaucrats and government officials, contained names of only 34 politicians out of a total of 8,000. According to the list, almost 97 per cent of the beneficiaries are from Sindh. The ordinance will lapse on Nov 28 in the light of the Supreme Court’s July 31 verdict in the PCO judge’s case. The Supreme Court of Pakistan led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had also taken suo moto notice in October 2007. The list shows that a total of 8,041 people — 7,793 from Sindh — have benefited from the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf on Oct 5, 2007. These people have got withdrawn 3,478 cases (3,320 in Sindh) registered against them on charges of corruption, financial bungling, misuse of authority and criminal charges.  Musharraf promulgated the NRO after striking a deal with PPP leader Benazir Bhutto in order to grant amnesty to all those against whom politically-motivated cases were registered between Jan 1, 1986, and Oct 12, 1999. The NRO is among the 37 ordinances about which the Supreme Court, in its July 31 verdict, had decreed that their fate should be decided by parliament within 120 days.   

Please reads the following stories for more details http://www.forumpakistan.com/complete-list-of-nro-beneficiaries-t40549.html
Pakistan's top defaulters http://richpaki.tripod.com/topdefault.htm 
Pakistan's Robber Barons http://richpaki.tripod.com/barons.html 
Who gets the bank loans? http://richpaki.tripod.com/whogets.htm

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