Daily Times

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday ordered the government to remove Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

A two-member bench, led by Justice Malik Shahzad, announced the verdict.

During the hearing, the court asked National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) counsel if any inquiry against Shehbaz pertaining to ownership of assets beyond known sources of income was ongoing. The counsel replied that an inquiry in this regard was launched on Oct 23, 2018. He added that suspicious transactions were detected from Shehbaz’s bank account.

The counsel for Sharif argued in court that his client appeared before the NAB whenever summoned, yet his name was still on the no-fly list.

Sharif’s counsel cited the example of Ayyan Ali’s case in which the court had ordered removal of her name from the ECL. He said that that the government put his client’s name on the no-fly list after a court of law had accepted his plea for bail. He added that NAB authorities were making a mockery [of laws].

He argued that Sharif used to go abroad and return during the inquiry and investigation.

In October, last year, NAB had launched an investigation against Sharif to detect his “illegal” assets.

Meanwhile, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that the government would challenge the Lahore High Court’s decision of removing Shehbaz Sharif’s name from the Exit Control List.