IHC urged to include names of Sharif family on ECL

Lawyers affiliated with PTI claim interior ministry favouring former premier

ISLAMABAD: A week after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court, two officials of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have sought the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) help in placing names of the Sharif family on a no-fly list.

Usman Saeed Basra and Gulbaz Mushtaq have filed a petition before the IHC requesting the court to direct the Ministry of Interior to place on the Exit Control List (ECL) the names of Nawaz, his three children, son in-law, and the Minister for Finance, Ishaq Dar.

Basra and Mushtaq in their petition stated that they have “serious apprehensions” that the former prime minister, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, sons Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz, son in-law Capt (retired) Mohammad Safdar and the incumbent finance minister “may flee the country to avoid trial and process of law”.

The petitioners, who are lawyers by profession and have served in the PTI in various capacities, said that it is imperative to include the names of the former premier and his family in the ECL so that the Panama case could reach a logical conclusion.

On July 31, they said, they filed an application before the interior ministry’s secretary, asking him to include names of the Sharif family in the ECL. However, they contended, neither has the officer entered their names in the ECL nor responded to their application.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2017.