Money laundering case: Govt challenges SHC order to remove Ayyan from ECL

DAG files petition on interior ministry’s behalf in Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD: The interior ministry on Saturday moved the top court against the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) January 19 order for removing supermodel Ayyan Ali’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Sajid Ilyas Bhatti filed a petition on behalf of the ministry, contending that while the high court could examine the legality of including a person’s name on ECL, granting permission to the accused to go abroad was ‘beyond its jurisdiction’ under article 199(1) of the Constitution.

The petition stated that any person whose name had been placed on the no-fly list could only seek permission for travelling abroad from the court in which his or her case was being tried, not from the high court.

The ministry also argued that referee judge Naimatullah Phulpoto “relied upon the opinion of Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha, and did not even discuss the observations … of the other member of the bench while disagreeing with his opinion.” Justice Phulpoto was appointed as a referee by the SHC chief justice after Justice KK Agha accepted Ayyan’s plea while the other judge on the bench dismissed it.

The ministry contended Justice KK Agha was obliged to recuse himself from the case. “Therefore, the impugned judgment is not sustainable,” it added.

A customs court in November 2015 indicted Ayyan for attempting to smuggle more than $500,000 in foreign currency, to which she pleaded ‘not guilty’.

The model was arrested on March 14, 2015, on charges of money laundering after customs officials recovered $506,000 from her luggage at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport before she boarded a flight to Dubai. She was granted bail in July last year after spending nearly four months in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail — and after her judicial remand was extended at least 16 times.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2017.