LAHORE: The Lahore High Court chief justice on Tuesday directed a committee formed to conduct sale of Ittefaq group`s four units to verify credentials of a foreign firm interested in buying them.

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

During the course of hearing, it transpired that a foreign firm (Premier Property) had shown interest in the sale process. Counsel for the firm stated his client wanted to buy all assets of Ittefaq group against Rs6.5 billion.

Justice Bandial, therefore, directed the sale committee to scrutinise the credentials and qualification of the foreign firm and also directed the company to deposit Rs50 million to the committee.

The chief justice observed that knowing credentials of a foreign firm was essential before sale of national assets.

Sharifs` counsel Ashtar Ausaf stated before the court that the saleprocess should be completed without any further delay. He said emergence of new prospective buyers would hamper the smooth process.

Justice Bandial asked the counsel whether Hassan Nawaz, director of Ittefaq Foundries and son of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, had given his consent for the units` sale.

Advocate Ausaf said apparently Mr Hassan Nawaz had no objection to the sale. However, the chief justice asked him to submit an NOC on behalf of Mr Hassan. The CJ adjourned further hearing till May 16.

A consortium of eight banks had sanctioned a collective loan of Rs3.11 billion to Ittefaq group 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.

YOUTUBE CASE: A Lahore High Court division bench on Tuesday directed a petitioner to approach the Supreme Court for interpretation ofits interim order following which the government blocked the YouTube in the country.

The bench headed by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah was hearing several petitions about ban on the access to YouTube in Pakistan after a blasphemous movie clip was uploaded on the website. An NGO `Bytes for All` had filed the petition.

During Tuesday`s hearing, the federal government stated that the website was blocked in the light of the Supreme Court`s order.

However, the petitioner`s counsel argued that the SC had directed the government to block the specific controversial video from the website but it blocked the whole website.

A deputy attorney general said the intention of the SC order was to block YouTube as there was no mechanism available with the ministry of information and technology to block or delete any specific material on a website.

The bench directed the petitioner`s counsel to approach the SC for interpretation of its order and to clear the ambiguity.

The bench adjourned hearing of the petition for a date to be fixed by the registrar office.