KARACHI: Youth from Karachi are claiming that The Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan (PMYBL) scheme was not for ordinary citizens, it was the scheme to oblige their supporters and it was nothing but an attempt to show luminous performance. No sooner PM announced the scheme, jobless youth applied for the scheme with brilliant dreams to commence their carrier but the procedure of applying for the loan in no time made them realise it is not a piece of cake to avail the scheme. They realised that they cannot benefit from this scheme. “This scheme is to benefit their supporters not for every one”, Tariq Ahmed, young graduate told Daily Times, adding that after applying I visited the bank many times but there was no satisfactory answer and wasting a long time they made useless objections and asked me the such documents which I could not provide them , that’s when I realized that this scheme is only for a slogan of the time and probably to give benefit to their youth. One more resident of Karachi Asif Latif, shared his experience that they were asking for the feasibility report of business with documents as I am expert in my work and working for 5 years in mechanical field but was unable to provide the documents which they are asking. According to Abid Qamar Spokesperson State Bank of Pakistan; from the available 100 billion, 83 percent has already been disbursed while a total of 78,939 applications were received out of which 21,734 applications were granted loan, among them 13 percent were women while its specified in the scheme that 50 percent is for women. In last four years only 21,734 youngsters were sanctioned the loan. It was expecting that the PM will do utmost to make the scheme viable to grab the vote in upcoming general election but proper attention was not given to this scheme the as it was supposed to be. The infrastructure was not good enough to sanction the amount. In his last visit to Karachi, Nawaz Sharif had showen dismay at the low disbursement of loans under the scheme. National Bank of Pakistan also came under fire as it is the largest loan provider under the scheme. NBP provided Rs20.35billion out of total Rs21.13billion sanctioned through the PMYBL. Three quarters of loan disbursements under the Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan scheme were in Punjab, according to the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) quarterly report . According to the report a region-wise break-up of the received applications until December 31, 2016 shows that 55,838 applications, or 75pc of the total, came from Punjab. Spokesman SBP said that under PMYBL Scheme, Rs 100 billion were to be disbursed among the provinces as per NFC share of each province. Punjab’s NFC share of 51.74% translates into targeted loan disbursements of Rs 51,740 million while the current loan disbursement in Punjab is much lower than this amount. Thus until the targeted disbursement of Rs 51,740 million is not met, disbursement in Punjab under PMYBL cannot be restrained, he added “In KPK and Sindh the total amount sanctioned under the scheme is 9% and 8% respectively and this corresponds with the share of these two provinces in the applications received under the scheme”, Spokesman said The fact that 75pc loans were disbursed in Punjab which supports the earlier assumption about the political use of the scheme. The government has very less time now and will disburse the loan on political basis so they can utilize their scheme as bribe to youngsters for upcoming general election. The Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan (PMYBL) scheme was launched by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with Rs100 billion in December 2013 with the promise to increase the amount in the scheme every year. Youth from Karachi are claiming that The Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan (PMYBL) scheme was not for ordinary citizens, it was the scheme to oblige their supporters and it was nothing but an attempt to show luminous performance. No sooner PM announced the scheme, jobless youth applied for the scheme with brilliant dreams to commence their carrier but the procedure of applying for the loan in no time made them realise it is not a piece of cake to avail the scheme. They realised that they cannot benefit from this scheme. “This scheme is to benefit their supporters not for every one”, Tariq Ahmed, young graduate told Daily Times, adding that after applying I visited the bank many times but there was no satisfactory answer and wasting a long time they made useless objections and asked me the such documents which I could not provide them , that’s when I realized that this scheme is only for a slogan of the time and probably to give benefit to their youth. One more resident of Karachi Asif Latif, shared his experience that they were asking for the feasibility report of business with documents as I am expert in my work and working for 5 years in mechanical field but was unable to provide the documents which they are asking. According to Abid Qamar Spokesperson State Bank of Pakistan; from the available 100 billion, 83 percent has already been disbursed while a total of 78,939 applications were received out of which 21,734 applications were granted loan, among them 13 percent were women while its specified in the scheme that 50 percent is for women. In last four years only 21,734 youngsters were sanctioned the loan. It was expecting that the PM will do utmost to make the scheme viable to grab the vote in upcoming general election but proper attention was not given to this scheme the as it was supposed to be. The infrastructure was not good enough to sanction the amount. In his last visit to Karachi, Nawaz Sharif had showen dismay at the low disbursement of loans under the scheme. National Bank of Pakistan also came under fire as it is the largest loan provider under the scheme. NBP provided Rs20.35billion out of total Rs21.13billion sanctioned through the PMYBL. Three quarters of loan disbursements under the Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan scheme were in Punjab, according to the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) quarterly report . According to the report a region-wise break-up of the received applications until December 31, 2016 shows that 55,838 applications, or 75pc of the total, came from Punjab. Spokesman SBP said that under PMYBL Scheme, Rs 100 billion were to be disbursed among the provinces as per NFC share of each province. Punjab’s NFC share of 51.74% translates into targeted loan disbursements of Rs 51,740 million while the current loan disbursement in Punjab is much lower than this amount. Thus until the targeted disbursement of Rs 51,740 million is not met, disbursement in Punjab under PMYBL cannot be restrained, he added “In KPK and Sindh the total amount sanctioned under the scheme is 9% and 8% respectively and this corresponds with the share of these two provinces in the applications received under the scheme”, Spokesman said The fact that 75pc loans were disbursed in Punjab which supports the earlier assumption about the political use of the scheme. The government has very less time now and will disburse the loan on political basis so they can utilize their scheme as bribe to youngsters for upcoming general election. The Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan (PMYBL) scheme was launched by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with Rs100 billion in December 2013 with the promise to increase the amount in the scheme every year. Published in Daily Times, August 8th 2017.