Cabinet approves adding Shehbaz Sharif’s name to ECL

The federal cabinet on Friday approved the inclusion of opposition leader and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif's name in the Exit Control List (ECL).

According to sources, a summary was formulated by the federal cabinet for the approval of Shehbaz's name.

The moves comes just ten days after the PML-N leader was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after the Lahore High Court (LHC) dismissed a petition seeking extension in his bail.

The accountability court remanded Shehbaz Sharif in the custody of NAB for two weeks to allow the top graft buster probe into a money laundering and assets beyond means case.

The anti-graft body has claimed that Shehbaz laundered billions of rupees from various anonymous accounts through his front men, employees and money changers.

NAB said Shehbaz’s assets in 1990 were worth Rs2.1 million whereas his assets and those of his children were worth Rs18 million in 1998.

Shehbaz and his sons set up nine business units from 2008 to 2018. An inquiry was launched against Shehbaz after receiving a complaint from the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) Financial Monitoring Unit.