Court seeks response for placing two on ECL

LHC Rawalpindi Bench asks for comments in the case of two former employees of NDC.

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi Bench on Monday asked the Secretary Ministry of Interior and Secretary Ministry of Defence to respond with their comments in the case of two former employees of National Development Complex (NDC) seeking the removal of their names from Exit Control List (ECL).

Justice Khawaja Imtiaz of LHC Rawalpindi asked the concerned authorities to reply with their comments by December 30.

The petitioners Waseem Sarwar and Muhammad Fahad filed a writ petition through their legal counsel Raja Gulfraz Khan on September 29 maintaining that they were employers in NDC on contract basis. The department assured both the petitioners that their contract would be extended but it was not done so. Consequently, both resigned.

The legal counsel of the petitioner told the court that  one of the petitioner Fahad was offered an independent scholarship by the Korean government for a PhD programme. Similarly, Sarwar was working in UAE in an engineering company and left the country.

When Sarwar came back to Pakistan from UAE, his name was placed on ECL, restricting him from returning back to his job. Fahad could also not get his PhD degree from Korea.

Legal counsel for the petitioner further told the court that NDC issued clearance certificates on the names of the petitioners maintaining that nothing was outstanding against them. But even the management of NDC has not removed their names from ECL. To put  their name on ECL is against the law, maintained the counsel for the petitioner.

He told the court that both the former employees were sole bread earners for their families. He prayed the court to direct the concerned authorities to remove their names from ECL and declare it null and void.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2010.