Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani has ruled that no person, organisation, authority or government can refuse to provide information to parliament by taking refuge under any rule, regulation or law.

In his ruling regarding a written reply by the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) – through the Finance Ministry – stating that “names of persons or companies who have obtained loans from the bank is private information of the borrowers and is protected”, Rabbani said it was a deliberate attempt to withhold information from parliament, which amounts to a breach of privilege of the House and its members.

However, he directed the NBP to inform the House – through the Finance Ministry – within 10 days of this ruling regarding names, and action taken against persons/officials of the bank and the ministry who drafted and approved the misleading answer.

The Senate chairman said that if the government was of the opinion that providing names of persons, who have obtained loans, would be against public interest, the only available remedy was to make recourse to the provisions of Senate Rules, 2012, for making a request to the Senate chairman in this regard.

Giving background, the chairman said that responding to a question of Senator Ch Tanvir Khan – seeking information regarding the names of persons/companies who have obtained loans of Rs 5 million or more from the NBP during the last five years, and the number of cases in which the said loans had been repaid or were being repaid, and those which were waived off – the National Bank of Pakistan in its written reply stated that no bank or financial institution shall divulge any information relating to the affairs of its customers and secrecy of bonafide banking transactions shall be strictly observed.

It may be mentioned that an aggregated amount – of loans Rs 5 million and above – disbursed by NBP during the last five years (July 2011 to June 2016) stands at Rs 360 billion.

The bank’s reply was endorsed by the minister in-charge during a supplementary question. However, in a motion moved by Senator Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini, which was supported by senators Saeedul Hassan Mandokhel, Numan Wazir Khattak, Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar, Saleem Mandviwalla, Taj Haider and Moulana Hafiz Hamdullah, it was stated that no information could be withheld from parliament.

Leader of the Opposition Senator Atizaz Ahsan endorsed the senators’ point of view. However, Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid stuck to the stance adopted by the NBP.