SHC rejects businessman’s appeal to be taken off ECL

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has dismissed the petition of a businessman, who is named as an accused in a fake bank accounts scam, for the removal of his name from the exit control list (ECL).

Aftab Hussain had moved the SHC for the removal of his name from the ECL. The petitioner’s counsel said that the name of the petitioner had been placed on the ECL in connection with the fake bank accounts case, but the petitioner had been outside the country since 2018.

The counsel said that the names of 172 suspects who were named as accused in the fake bank accounts scam had been removed from the ECL, so the retention of the petitioner’s name on the ECL was discriminatory.

The special prosecutor of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), however, said that the petitioner had failed to join the investigation and had remained away from Pakistan since 2018 to avoid proceedings.

The counsel told the court that the petitioner had not joined the NAB inquiry. Moreover, the counsel pointed out, even the present petition had been filed through an attorney. He said that the petition was in any event misconceived because the pertinent removal of names from the ECL was under scrutiny before the Supreme Court in a suo motu case, and the court on May 19, 2022, had ordered the parties to maintain the status quo.

An SHC division bench comprising Mohammad Junaid Ghaffar and Justice Agha Faisal said the petitioner’s counsel had articulated no cavil to the factum that the SC was presently seized of the matter pertaining to the removal of the 172 names from the ECL, consistent treatment whereof was sought by the petitioner. The bench said status quo orders had been passed by the SC, and in the presence whereof no case for the assumption of jurisdiction by this court could be made out. The court said the petitioner’s counsel had failed to set forth a case for the exercise of the writ jurisdiction.