ISLAMABAD, April 4: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has sent a list of alleged bank loan defaulters to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the list includes PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, according to sources in the ECP.

The NAB provided another list to the ECP of people who benefited from plea bargain and deals for voluntarily returning the payable amounts.

According to the sources, the Sharif brothers have not returned Rs4.9 billion they borrowed from nine banks in 1994-95 on the plea that NAB had confiscated their properties which, according to them, was worth more than the amount of the loans.

The loans were taken from the National Bank of Pakistan, Habib Bank Limited, United Bank Limited, Muslim Commercial Bank, Punjab Mudaraba, Bank of Punjab, Agriculture Development Bank of Pakistan (presently called Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited), Pakistan Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation and ICP Bank.

When contacted, NAB spokesman Ramzan Sajid declined to give details of the cases against the Sharifs. He neither denied nor confirmed that the names of the PML-N leaders were in the list.

“We have sent the record of more than 16,000 people to the ECP,” he said.

The spokesman said NAB had received records of 19,400 candidates and the record of 16,526 had been scrutinised and sent back to the ECP. “Of the total applications received by NAB, 2,874 are under process and will be returned by late tonight,” he added.

The election cell of NAB receives relevant information from regional offices, compiles the record of candidates and forwards it to the ECP within 24 hours, in accordance with a decision taken at a meeting with the ECP last month.

Representatives of relevant departments including National Database Registration Authority, Federal Board of Revenue, and State Bank of Pakistan attended the meeting.