Barely two per cent of the Rs 211 billion loans have been returned by the public with only a day left for loan amnesty deadline, and the military ruler has taken "serious notice" of the poor response to the order and has asked advisors, including the finance minister Shaukat Aziz and other National Security Council members, to chalk out some "stringent action".

The military authorities are expected to promulgate an ordinance within a day or two to pave way for speedy trial of all loan defaulters who failed to meet the deadline, another daily Frontier Post said.

Gen Musharraf asked Supreme Court judge Justice Saiduzamman Siddiqui for setting up speedy trial court to punish the loan defaulters. General Musharraf, after seizing power from Sharif on October 12,had vowed to recover all the looted national wealth and had made the loan defaulters his first target by giving a month-long deadline during his address to the nation on October 17.

Meanwhile, interior minister Moinuddin Haider has been quoted as saying by the media that a list of 1900 big defaulters has already been prepared and has been handed over to the authorities concerned for proper action.

This list includes defaulters of more than Rs 10 crore and it has also been supplied to the immigration authorities at major international airports, as well as land transit points, to prevent any escape routes for these defaulters, he said.

Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members also figure among the major defaulters of the banks.