RAWALPINDI: A Rawalpindi accountability court on Thursday acquitted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif among others implicated in the Ittefaq Foundries case.

Rejecting a 2011 application filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for the reopening of investigation into the Ittefaq Foundries case, Accountability Court judge Sohail Nasir acquitted PM Nawaz, CM Shahbaz, Shamim Akhtar, Kulsoom Nawaz, the late Abbas Sharif, and Ittefaq Foundries' directors in the case.

According to a reference filed by NAB in 2014, Ittefaq Foundries and its then directors — Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Mian Javed Shafi, Mian Yousuf Aziz, Mian Tariq Shafi and others — were guilty of wilful default to the National Bank of Pakistan to the tune of over Rs1 billion since 1994.

In Dec 2014, Justice Shehzada Mazhar of the Lahore High Court disposed of 18-year-old petitions filed by the National Bank of Pakistan for the recovery of loans from Ittefaq Foundries.

An executive vice president of the bank told the judge on Dec 9, 2014 that the company had cleared all loans.

Read more: SC orders proceedings against Ittefaq Foundries’ guarantor