Hit by floods

July 2015 devastating floods wreak havoc in Chitral and the district was declared a calamity-hit area. Immediately after the flood, the prime minister visited Chitral and announced Rs500 million relief package to the affected people of the area. The PM also announced that since Chitral is hit by floods that have badly affected its agriculture sector, therefore, people who have borrowed Zarai Taraqiati Bank’s loans couldn’t repay the loan. The prime minister announced that these loans should be waived off. That announcement was highly appreciated by the people of Chitral and it was a relief to the affected community. After the announcement, borrowers stopped the payment of their instalments to the ZTBL in a hope that their loan has already been written off.  The ZTBL officials also refused to collect instalment of the loans and waited for the final notification of write off from the prime minister office.

Two years have been passed but the bank hasn’t received an official notification. This has created a state of confusion among ZTBL officials as well as general customers. After being exhausted for a period of two long years, the ZTBL issued notices to the customer to repay their instalments along with interest of the past period. This has created tremendous burden on the customer. Had there been no announcement from the prime minister, customer would have repaid their loan with minimum interest burden. Instead of helping the affected people, the PM’s announcement has added burden on already distressed people. Now the borrowers would have to pay two years interest which is definitely a huge burden on their weak shoulders. People of Chitral once again remind and request the PM to honour his announcement. If that announcement is not honoured, people will have to repay the loan after a lapse of two years along with compound interest for the past period which is a huge burden on their shoulders.

Nasir Mehmood Drosh

Chitral