Pre-empting travel curbs: Premier’s son flies abroad

Ali Musa Gilani has left for South Africa and is expected to travel to the UK too, confirmed his personal secretary.

LAHORE: Before his name could be placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) for his alleged role in a Rs7 billion drug quota scandal, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s son has left Pakistan.

Ali Musa Gilani, who was recently elected to the National Assembly, has left for South Africa and is expected to travel to the UK too, confirmed his personal secretary while talking to The Express Tribune.

The secretary, however, added that it is a scheduled visit and Ali Musa is likely to return on May 2, 2012.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to Ali Musa in the high-profile Ephedrine quota case while the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had requested the interior ministry to add his name on the ECL.

He has been repeatedly summoned by the ANF in the case earlier for investigation into the Ephedrine quota allotment.

Sources in the interior ministry as well the Federal  Investigation Agency (FIA) said that so far Ali Musa had not been placed on the ECL.  Sources added that Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Khushnood Lashari, who purportedly attempted to influence investigations into the case, might also leave the country before his name is placed on the ECL.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th, 2012.