ISLAMABAD, May 17: The National Accountability Bureau has started investigations into alleged bank loan default cases against PML-N leaders Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif.

“We have started an inquiry against the Sharif brothers on a complaint by Interior Minister Rehman Malik,” said NAB spokesman Zafar Iqbal Khan at a press briefing at the bureau’s headquarters here on Thursday.

On April 28, the interior minister had accused the Sharif family of robbing 31 banks, development finance institutions (DFIs) and non-banking financial institutions of over Rs6 billion to build their industrial empire. The PML-N leaders were accused of illegally extracting loans for 19 industrial units owned by their family from banks and DFIs. The Sharif family was also accused of defaulting on payment of $32 million for paper manufacturing machinery leased from UK-based Altowfeek company in February 1995.

The NAB spokesman said the interior minister had unveiled two cases against the PML-N leaders. “One has been referred to the NAB and the other to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly,” he said.

Answering a question about another alleged case of loan default by the Sharif brothers pending with the NAB, Mr Khan said the Lahore High Court had barred the bureau from taking it up two years ago. “As far as old cases of the Sharif brothers are concerned, they remained pending as the Sharifs were out of Pakistan.

“The LHC has directed us not to open those cases against them because they had taken the plea that they could be politically victimised through these cases,” he said.

Adviser to NAB chairman and head of the media wing of the bureau Dr Ayesha Siddiqa told Dawn that the cases presented by the interior minister had been referred to NAB’s Prosecutor General K.K. Agha who had been asked to advise whether the bureau could initiate inquiry against the Sharif brothers.

The NAB has in the past been accused of becoming a tool in the hands of rulers to twist the arms of opposition leaders and its latest action against the PML-N leaders will put it under further criticism.

The NAB spokesman said: “In the fresh reference against the Sharif brothers, the bureau will take cognizance of the law of the land and will solve the case on merit.”