Change of guards: Latif Khosa to represent Ayyan in passport return case

Power of attorney papers submitted in IHC

ISLAMABAD: Former Punjab governor Sardar Latif Khosa also will represent model Ayyan Ali in a case where the customs authorities have sought court’s intervention to bar her from getting her passport back.

An associate of Khosa submitted power of attorney on behalf of the model before the Islamabad High Court on Wednesday. While filing the document, the associate requested the court to grant time for filing a reply in the case.

During the previous hearing, Justice Athar Minallah had issued notice to Ayyan in connection with a customs department petition challenging a Rawalpindi court’s order directing them to handover the passport to her.

In the petition, customs counsel said that Ayyan was arrested on the spot while travelling abroad with foreign currency amounting to US$506,800 and she had no lawful justification at the time.

The counsel argued that Ayyan did not require a passport for now as her name is on the government’s ‘Exit Control List’, meaning that she cannot legally leave the country. Despite her name being on the ECL, he expressed apprehension that Ayyan might escape the proceedings through an unauthorised route as she has significant assets abroad.

Besides, he said, the passport is material evidence and it could conveniently be subjected to mutilation, destruction or loss. It is necessary for the sake of justice that the passport may be kept in state custody, he added.

He said that the impugned order was without jurisdiction and lawful authority, a result of not reading or misreading the record, and without judicious application of judicial mind. He requested the court to vacate the impugned order for the sake of justice and equity.

On November 25, a Rawalpindi court directed customs officials to return Ayyan’s passport to her.

The case will be taken up on December 23.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2015.