Loan default: Court gives Sharif cousins last chance to appear

LAHORE: A banking court on Monday expressed resentment over the cousins of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for failing to appear in a case against them for allegedly defaulting on bank loans.

Judge Munir Joya warned that the accused persons’ identity cards, passports, and bank accounts will be blocked if they do not appear in court in a personal capacity. For the last ten months, they have been getting the case adjourned through their lawyers without showing up, he observed.

Adjourning the case until September 7, the court ruled that it is giving Shahid Shafi, Tariq Shafi, Javed Shafi, Ali Pervaiz and Ibrahim Tariq a last chance to appear before it.

A lawyer, who represented different banks, stated that the case was instituted against the accused persons for allegedly defaulting on loans worth Rs700 million obtained for Ittifaq and Kashmir sugar mills.

It was submitted that the former premier’s cousins were served multiple notices by the banks to pay back the loan but to no avail. The court, therefore, was requested to order action against them as per relevant laws.