| Some nations honour their citizenry by inclusion of their names in a Dictionary of National Biography. Other publish a Who’s Who of their noteworthy nationals. In Pakistan, such publicity is usually reserved for loan defaulters. |
| The caretaker Government, in a daring act of financial exposure, of which the Swiss banking authorities have perhaps already taken note, authorized the release of a list of defaulters - persons who directly or through companies under their control took loans falling overdue on 31 December 1992, which in bank parlance means were due and outstanding but unpaid at that date, and/or had amounts of principal, interest or penal interest written off up to that date. The 100 page long list seems as bottomless as the coffers of the banks and financial institutions from which the money was drawn. [EXTRACT] |
Published in THE NATION 5 Sept. 1993, and reprinted in THE ARMLESS QUEEN (1994). |
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