LHC to hear foreclosure law case on Sept 13

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan on Tuesday fixed case regarding foreclosure law for hearing on Sept 13 on an appeal by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

A five-member bench, headed by Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh and comprising Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh, Justice Jawad Hassan and Justice Asim Hafeez, will hear the matter. The PM had appealed to the LHC chief justice to immediately fix the case, pending since long, while addressing a ceremony in connection with Naya Pakistan Housing Programme on July 31. The PM observed that an early decision on the issue would enable the banking sector extend loaning facilities and ease mortgage process.

The petitioners, Muhammad Shoaib Arshad and others, through their petition, had challenged reintroduction of Section 15 of Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance 2001, which empowered banks to sell mortgaged property in case of default in payment by a customer.

They submitted that Section 15 of Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance 2001, had been declared ultra vires of the Constitution by the Supreme Court and the LHC through two different judgments.

However, the section was reintroduced in the Ordinance through Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) (Amendment) Act 2016 and it was not sustainable in the light of said judgments.

The matter was initially heard in 2016 by then LHC Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, who suspended the new section 15. An LHC full bench heard the matter on May 29, 2019 but it adjourned the hearing till July due to absence of attorney general and counsel for petitioners.