LAHORE, Nov 22: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial directed on Thursday a “sale committee” to submit a written quotation about the auction of Ittefaq Group of Industries’ units to recover a defaulted loan of Rs3 billion obtained from different banks.

The chief justice directed the committee to also invite international buyers and publish advertisements in foreign newspapers.

The court had already allowed the sale of different units of the Ittefaq group owned by the Sharif family of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. The chief justice adjourned the hearing till Dec 19.

Mian Meraj Din, one of the shareholders in the group and Nawaz Sharif's uncle, had challenged the sale of units.

However, the court had dismissed the same ruling that the units were mortgaged with banks at the time of securing loan and they must be sold to recover the loan amount.

National Bank of Pakistan, Habib Bank Ltd, United Bank Ltd, Zarai Taraqiati Bank of Pakistan, Muslim Commercial Bank, Picic Bank, First Punjab Mudarba and Corporate Law Authority had filed the petition in 1998.

Petitioners sought an order for the recovery of loan through auction of Ittefaq Foundries, Ittefaq Textile Mills and Khalid Siraj Industries and other units as they had failed to fulfill financial commitments made against the loan sanctioned to them.

The Sharif family had agreed to hand over four units to banks to clear the loans but the banks rejected it and demanded cash settlement against loans.

The court had formed a sale committee comprising banks’ representatives to monitor the auction.

Disposed of: The Lahore High Court (LHC) disposed of a petition on Thursday challenging the graduation degree of PML-Q MNA Nauman Ahmad Langrial.

Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh passed this order after the Punjab University in its report declared the degree of the MNA genuine.

The judge asked the petitioner to approach the university authorities if she was not satisfied with the report.

Begum Shahnaz Javed of the PPP, who lost her general election against Langrial from NA-163, Sahiwal, had filed the petition.

She said the respondent MNA had contested elections on the basis of a fake degree. She said the Higher Education Commission in a report about elected representatives with fake degrees had also declared the degree of the respondent fake.

She requested the court to disqualify Langrial.