A Customs court in Rawalpindi on Saturday issued bailable arrest warrants for model Ayyan Ali over no-show in the currency smuggling case. Judge Arshad Bhutta presided over the hearing. The court maintained that Ayyan failed to appear at hearings over the last one a half years despite being repeatedly summoned. The counsel for Ayyan Ali submitted before the court that she was unable to appear “due to illness” and requested that she be granted temporary absence. The court, however rejected the application filed by the defence lawyer and warned her counsel that if she did not appear for her next hearing, non-bailable arrest warrants would be issued against her. The case was adjourned till October 6. In 2015, Ayyan was arrested by Airport Security Force at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Airport while boarding a flight to the United Arab Emirates with $506,800 without the permission of the State Bank of Pakistan. She was sent to jail and the government put her name on the Exit Control List. But she subsequently left for Dubai after she was released on bail and a court ordered the removal of her name from the ECL. Published in Daily Times, September 16th 2018.