World Bulletin / News Desk

Pakistan's prime minister has been acquitted in a case over an unpaid 3 billion Pakistani rupee ($3 million) loan. 

Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz, the chief minister of the northeastern Punjab province, were acquitted after 14 years, as were their deceased father and brother. 

The charges were filed under anti-corruption rules in 2001 on the application of a consortium of banks accusing Sharif and his industrialist family for not paying back a loan borrowed in 1996 for his Ittefaq Iron Foundry.

The Sharif family's lawyer pleaded that the charges should not have been filed as the family had settled the debt by handing over three units of their factory. 

On this basis the judge turned down an application for the case to be reopened, Khawaja Haris, a counsel for the Sharif family, told Anadolu Agency.

Several charges, including a hijacking case, were registered against Sharif and his family following a coup that saw him pushed from government and replaced with General Pervez Musharraf in 1999.