Appeal to minister: Sehba seeks travel ban waiver for ailing spouse

Says Musharraf returned voluntarily to Pakistan to face charges against him.

ISLAMABAD:

As the former military ruler’s aides and medics consider shifting him abroad for treatment, the wife of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf has requested the government to remove his name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

“Remove my husband’s name from the ECL on medical grounds. We need him to get medical treatment abroad,” Begum Sehba Musharraf said in a letter to the interior ministry through Musharraf’s counsel, hours after doctors at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology sent his medical reports for review to Britain.



A close aide told The Express Tribune that Begum Sehba said that her spouse returned to Pakistan voluntarily to face charges against him so “there stands no reason to put his name on the ECL”.

While Musharraf’s lawyer Ahmed Raza Kasuri told AFP that “no fresh application has been filed by Madam Sehba”, interior ministry officials confirmed that a request from Musharraf’s side seeking the removal of his name from the ECL has been received.

However, they added that the ministry has “no mind to remove his name” from the ECL.

Soon after receiving the request, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that Musharraf’s name would not be removed from the ECL. “The government cannot remove Musharraf’s name from the ECL until the special tribunal orders it [government] to,” Asif was quoted as saying by a private television channel.

Musharraf’s counsel Barrister Saif also claimed that he has approached the government to lift his client’s name from the official list that bars him from travelling abroad.



“It’s the government which has put my client’s name on the ECL. Currently, no court has barred Musharraf from leaving the country,” he said. He filed his request after the Sindh High Court’s order pertaining to the removal of Musharraf’s name from the ECL. The court advised the former military ruler to approach the federation to have his name removed.

The government, however, claimed that Musharraf cannot leave the country until the Supreme Court reviews its order in which it directed the federation not to let the retired general travel abroad.

The apex court, in its order on April 8, 2013, had directed the government and all its functionaries to ensure Musharraf’s presence in Pakistan at all costs until the federation takes effective legal measures to initiate a criminal case against Musharraf and others, who had inter alia subverted the Constitution in 2007.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told the media that Musharraf’s name is on the ECL and that he cannot leave the country until the apex court reviews its decision. Even the prime minister cannot pass an executive order to the interior ministry to remove Musharraf’s name from the ECL, said senior Advocate Ali Zafar.

“Musharraf can only leave Pakistan when the court orders the interior ministry to remove his name from the ECL,” he added.

“In view of the SC order to put Musharraf’s name on the ECL in connection with the treason case…I do not think that it is possible for the interior ministry to remove his name unless the apex court reviews its order,” observed former interior secretary Tasneem Noorani.

Earlier, the government was believed to be considering change in the way an accused person’s name is put on the ECL. The interior minister had expressed a desire to wipe out the system under which a person’s name could be put or removed from the ECL without ample evidence.

Currently, names of more than 4,000 persons are on the ECL, which the interior ministry believes includes names of hundreds of innocent citizens.

Saudi envoy meets Nisar

In a related development, Saudi Ambassador Dr Abdul Aziz Ibrahim al Ghadeer discussed issues, particularly Musharraf’s treason trial with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, said officials familiar with the matter.

“The [Saudi] Ambassador informed the minister [Nisar] that the interior minister of Saudi Arabia would like to visit Pakistan,” said an official statement issued soon after Nisar’s meeting with al Ghadeer on Saturday.

“This meeting could take place as early as the end of January 2014, in which a few important agreements relating to security cooperation, combating illicit trafficking and smuggling as well as the transfer of prisoners could also be signed,” the statement added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2014.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated Fawad Chaudhry's name as one of Musharraf's advocates. The error is regretted.