Daily Times

The Lahore High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the federal government and other parties, seeking a reply by May 26 on a petition against not allowing PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif to travel abroad despite the court’s earlier orders.

Justice Ali Baqar Najafi heard the petition. The PML-N leader was represented Advocate Amjad Pervez and Azam Nazeer Tarar.

During the hearing, Justice Najafi questioned whether the application was maintainable after inclusion of Shehbaz Sharif’s in the exit control list (ECL). Whether the application was maintainable after the interim court orders were challenged by the government before the Supreme Court, he further asked. He also questioned the counsel for the petitioner that how the interim orders could be got implemented after inclusion of petitioner’s name in the ECL.

To this, the PML-N leader’s counsel replied that the matter would be cleared if the court seeks reply from the government. At this, the court directed the federal law officer to seek instructions from quarters concerned whether the name of Shehbaz Sharif had been put on the ECL. However, the law officer opposed the application and stated that it was the responsibility of Shehbaz Sharif to get the court interim orders served to the authorities concerned.

Subsequently, the court issued notices to the federal government and other respondents for May 26 and sought a reply.

Shehbaz Sharif had filed the application for implementation of the court orders of allowing him to travel abroad for medical check-up. It is pertinent to mention here that an LHC single bench had on May 7 conditionally allowed Shehbaz Sharif to travel abroad for medical check-up on his petition for removing his name from the blacklist.

On May 8, Shehbaz, who is also the leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, was to board a flight to Qatar when he was stopped by immigration officials at the Lahore airport. He was told his name was still on a no-fly list titled, the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL). On Monday, the government also added his name to the exit control list (ECL), after it was removed by a court order in 2019.