Contempt of court: Ayyan Ali approaches high court against interior ministry

Apex court had disposed of similar plea a day before

KARACHI: Model Ayyan Ali approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday for initiation of contempt of court proceedings against the federal interior ministry for not allowing her to leave the country despite her name having been removed from the Exit Control List (ECL).

On Monday, the Supreme Court had disposed of her plea seeking contempt proceedings against the interior ministry and asked the model to approach the SHC for the purpose.

On March 7 this year, the SHC had ordered the removal of Ayyan's name from the ECL.



Customs authorities had arrested her in March 2015 on charges of money laundering after Customs officials recovered $506,000 from her luggage at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad when she was going to Dubai.

In July last year, she was granted bail after spending around four months in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

Though the model got her passport back, her name has not been removed from the ECL so far.

In her contempt plea, Ali argued that the interior ministry had once again included her name in the ECL in violation of the orders passed by the high court. She added that while the interior ministry was duly informed about the SHC's orders, it did not exclude her name from the list, which is tantamount to committing contempt of the court orders.

Therefore, the court was pleaded to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the alleged contemnors.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th,  2016.