Maryam Nawaz files fresh petition to get off ECL

LAHORE: PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Saturday filed a fresh petition in the Lahore High Court seeking removal of her name from the Exit Control List (ECL) and one-time permission to travel abroad to see her ailing father in London.

On an earlier petition, a two-judge bench had on December 9 directed a sub-committee of the federal cabinet to decide the matter of Maryam relating to the ECL and travel abroad within seven days.

Maryam stated in her fresh petition that the government initially remained non-responsive and took up the matter, following persistent requests by her counsel, for hearing on December 18 wherein all concerned including representatives of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were summoned and heard. However, she said, she had not been yet intimated as to the fate of her representation despite the lapse of the time given by the court.

She contended that it was a known fact that her father former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was allowed to go abroad on account of his critical health condition. Her father had not regained his health so far as he was still undergoing diagnosis process as per a medical report filed with the court, duly attested by the Pakistan High Commission in London. The PML-N leader said she was in dire need to go abroad to attend and inquire after her ailing father.

“Serving one’s father is not only a religious obligation but the same also inheres in human nature, indeed, the same is also a universally-recognized norm but unfortunately, it appears that the respondent government is swayed over by its political rhetoric,” said the petition.

Filed through Advocate Amjad Pervez, the petition argued that the petitioner had been placed on the ECL without notice and providing any opportunity of hearing. It argued that the impugned memorandum issued on the recommendations of the NAB violates her fundamental rights of due process, life, liberty, treatment in accordance with law and fair trial guaranteed by the Constitution. It said the so-called recommendations by the NAB had been acted upon in a mechanical manner and without judicious application of mind in contravention of the law declared by superior courts.

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Anwarul Haq Pannun will take up the petition on Monday.