Blame game on Rashid’s ECL listing

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday categorically denied getting the name of former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed included in the Exit Control List (ECL).

The denial came during a hearing at the Lahore High Court (LHC)’s Rawalpindi bench in which the Ministry of Interior (MoI) submitted a report that the name was included in the ECL on the recommendation of the premier accountability watchdog.

The court rejected the ministry’s report and issued a notice to the federal interior secretary and the relevant section officer and summoned them on Wednesday (today).

At the outset of the hearing, the NAB team and the prosecutor, in its report, pleaded that the Bureau neither made any recommendation to the federal government to include the name of the Awami Muslim League (AML) chief in the ECL nor wrote any letter in this regard. Even, Rashid wasn’t involved in the £190 million Al-Qadir University case and wanted in any NAB case, the report added.

The MoI, in its report submitted following the LHC’s notice during the last hearing, had claimed that Rashid’s name was included in the ECL on the NAB’s recommendation.

The division bench of the LHC, comprising Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan and Justice Mirza Waqas Rauf, expressed strong displeasure over the submission of the alleged false report.

In his petition, Rashid had pleaded that he used to perform Umrah every year in Ramazan, and this time his name had been put in the ECL as a ‘revenge’.

Advocate Sardar Abdul Raaziq informed the court that the indictment had been imposed in the £190 million reference case and that Rashid's name wasn’t included in the list of accused.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2024.