Home / Pakistan / Prime Minister Khan asks ‘why lawmakers are so scared of the ECL’

Prime Minister Khan asks ‘why lawmakers are so scared of the ECL’

Prime Minister Imran Khan in a tweet on Thursday asked why lawmakers were “so scared” of the Exit Control List (ECL) and why they were so keen to go abroad.

Prime Minister Imran Khan in a tweet on Thursday asked why lawmakers were “so scared” of the Exit Control List (ECL) and why they were so keen to go abroad.

“Funny it’s only the opposition members on ECL, government members are busy travelling. Including PM who despite promising not to travel for first six months has made more than seven trips so far!,” the PPP chairman added.

On the recommendations of the joint investigation team (JIT) tasked with probing the fake accounts case, the federal cabinet had in its meeting on December 27, 2018 decided to place the names of 172 individuals — who were named in the investigation report — on the ECL, including Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Faryal Talpur, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Farooq H Naek and several other leaders and provincial ministers belonging to the PPP.

Last week, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar had grilled the state prosecutor over why the government had decided to place names of Bilawal and the Sindh chief minister on the no-fly list based on JIT’s recommendation, ordering the federal cabinet to reconsider its “hasty decision”.

The government, however, had said it would wait for the court’s written judgement.

During a National Assembly session on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi regretted that the government had shown haste in placing the names of 172 people on the ECL.

Attempting to placate the PPP, Qureshi said that the matter was discussed in a federal cabinet meeting and the government had decided to wait until the detailed verdict is released.

According to Qureshi, the top court had ordered the government to consider the removal of the travel ban, not to take the names off the list immediately.

Later in the day on Wednesday, the Supreme Court finally released its order pertaining to the removal of the names of Bilawal as well as Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah from ECL, noting: “Removing of the names will not prevent NAB [National Accountability Bureau] to probe and in case sufficient material is found connecting these individuals with cognisable offences, it will not be precluded from making an appropriate request to the federal government to place their names on [the] ECL again or take any appropriate action provided by law.

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