Putting Ayyan on ECL: Interior secretary directed to decide on plea within 10 days

Widow of customs inspector had requested to put Ayyan Ali’s name on the ECL

RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday directed interior secretary to decide the application of widow of a customs inspector, who has requesting putting name of model Ayyan Ali on the exit control list (ECL), within 10 days.

Justice Atir Mahmood of the LHC Rawalpindi bench disposed of the petition filed by Saima Ejaz, widow of Inspector Ejaz Mahmood, and Riaz Afzal, brother of the deceased.

Citing secretary interior, Federal Investigation Officer director general, Rawalpindi regional police officer and city police officer, and Ali as respondents, the petitioners had maintained that the model needed to be stopped from proceeding to foreign countries.

The petitioners said that Ali’s name must be put on the ECL as she was responsible for murder of Inspector Mahmood, who was an important prosecution witness in the currency-smuggling case against the model.

The widow had claimed that her husband had told her that unidentified people were pressurising him to help Ali in the case. He had feared for his life, she had said.

It may here be recalled that the widow had stated before the police that model Ali was responsible for death of her husband.

Waris Khan Police had stated after their initial investigation that Inspector Mahmood was shot dead after he offered resistance to unidentified robbers.

Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has granted stay on an application of Ayyan Ali challenging an order of a custom collector imposing a penalty of Rs50 million in the currency-smuggling case.

While granting stay, Justice Athar Minallah has called comments from the respondent by May 30 as she had claimed that the fine was imposed on her without giving her an opportunity to defence.

On April 4, the customs Collector (adjudication) imposed a fine on her for making an attempt to smuggle the foreign currency above the prescribed limit.

Ayyan through her counsel Sardar Muhammad Latif Khosa has challenged the decision saying that she was shocked to know through electronic and print media about the impugned order. The counsel said that the custom collector imposed fine after ex-parte proceedings, while the currency smuggling matter was still pending before the courts.

He said that the custom authorities charged Ayyan for currency smuggling despite the fact that she was not taking the money out from the country rather she was supposed to hand it over to her brother at the airport.

The custom officials had arrested Ayyan from the Islamabad airport while she was allegedly trying to smuggle half a million dollars.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2016.