The suspense mounted as 16 November drew near. A month earlier, the new military ruler of Pakistan, Gen Pervez Musharraf, had warned all "willful" loan defaulters to repay their debts back to the banks by that date or face the consequences. The build-up to mid-November was marked by daily countdowns in newspapers and TV, and advertised warnings. But when the day came around, the defaulters had returned only 10 billion rupees out of the total colossal figure of PKR 211 billion (USD 1 = PKR 50 approx).
The expectation was that the army would crack down heavily on those who didn't pay back. And some fantasies did come true, with the people getting to see some bigwigs being rounded up; 35 of the top defaulters are now in custody, joining the company of fellow defaulter, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
As a symbolic gesture, the arrests were significant as many of those detained represent some of the most influential families in Pakistan, and the nabbing of a retired air marshal sent out the message that even armed forces personnel (albeit retired) would not be spared. Meanwhile, another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, wanted in cases of corruption, was declared a fugitive from justice.
Loan defaults have been a highly emotional issue in Pakistan since 1988, when parliamentary democracy was restored to Pakistan with the death of military dictator Zia-ul Haq in a mid-air explosion. Using their new-found freedom, journalists began reporting how top politicians and businessmen connived with bureaucrats and bank officials to plunder people's savings from nationalised banks in the name of loans that they never paid back, and which were often ultimately written off.