LAHORE: The Lahore High Court was told on Tuesday that the sale agreement of Ittefaq group's four units had been finalised with Al-Rehmat group.

Representing Sharif family, Advocate Ashtar Ausaf further told the court that the Al-Rehmat group would buy the units against Rs6 billion and schedule of the payment had also been decided.

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial was hearing several petitions about sale of the Ittefaq Foundries subsidiaries -- Ittefaq Brothers and Brothers Steel Mill -- to adjust the billions of rupees unpaid loan.

The CJ adjourned further hearing till Wednesday (today).

A consortium of eight banks had sanctioned a collective loan of Rs3.11 billion to Ittefaq Group of Industries between 1982 and 1998. In most cases the loan was not paid back and the banks added the markup charges to the actual credit.

A single bench had accepted a petition of the banks for sale of Ittefaq Foundries, Brothers Steel at Kot Lakhpat, Ittefaq Brothers at Shahdara and Ilyas Enterprises at Bund Road, Lahore. These units were surrendered by Nawaz Sharif's family against bank liabilities for loan adjustment.1

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2014