Currency smuggling case: Model Ayyan wants name removed from exit control list

SHC issues notice to interior secretary on model's petition

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the interior secretary on model Ayyan Ali's petition seeking removal of her name from the exit control list (ECL).

The bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, also issued notice to the deputy attorney general to file the secretary's comments by December 23. Meanwhile, it also directed the currency smuggling accused's lawyer to satisfy the court on the issue of territorial jurisdiction.

Customs officials had confiscated around half a million dollars from the model at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad, in March this year which she was allegedly trying to smuggle out of the country.

Ayyan's counsel, Sardar Latif Khosa, said on November 20 the interior ministry secretly placed his client's name on the ECL, as the same was not posted on the ministry's website, which showed the malafide intention of federal agencies to keep adding to Ayyan's miseries.

He pointed out that the ministry's decision is not only against the law but also against its own policy as there is a committee in the ministry which is tasked to decide placing of names on the ECL and that too on court directions. "Nether the committee decided (the matter), nor did such court orders exist," the lawyer pointed out.

Khosa informed the court that the Federal Board of Revenue's director-general for intelligence and Investigation had filed an application with the special judge of the Rawalpindi Customs court to inquire into the source of income of the petitioner, who was contesting the same in court, as the money admittedly belonged to her and is not from proceeds of any crime, which is the essence for bringing a case within the ambit of money laundering.

He maintained that the total earnings of Ayyan stood at Rs500 million, while she had deposited Rs1 million surety with the court to seek bail.

The lawyer claimed that there is no incriminating material available against the model to show that she had acted against the security of the country, adding that mere pendency of any civil or criminal case against any citizen does not make any grounds to restrict movement.

It was argued that the ministry's decision of restricting her from travelling abroad is a violation of the fundamental rights, as guaranteed in articles 9 and 10-A of the Constitution, as well as Section 2 (3) of the ECL Ordinance, 1981.

The court was, therefore, pleaded to declare placing the petitioner's name on the ECL as without any lawful authority and set-aside the case.

The model, charged for currency smuggling by a Customs court in Rawalpindi last month, was recently returned her passports after being released on bail following the submission of surety bonds and promise of not fleeing the country.

Meanwhile, Customs authorities have also challenged in the Islamabad High Court the Rawalpindi Customs court's decision to return the model's passports. They claim, among other things, that the model has no need for her passport since she cannot leave the country as her name is on the ECL.

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