Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Supermodel Ayyan Ali on Friday filed a contempt plea in the Supreme Court against the Interior Ministry, saying that the ministry put her name on the Exit Control List again in violation of the court orders dated April 13.

On April 18, the Interior Ministry had assured Ali that her name would be removed from the Exit Control List. The ministry later put Ali’s name on the ECL once again.

Ali pleaded through her counsel Sardar Latif Khosa that she reached Karachi airport to leave for Dubai on April 20, where the Federal Investigation Agency and Customs officials did not allow her to board the plane.

Ali said in her petition that she showed the court orders to the officials at the airport, but they said they were answerable to their senior, not to the court. She said, “Orders of the SC and customs courts were shown to them (FIA and Custom officials), but they said that they had been ordered by their superiors not to allow the applicant (Ali) to board the plane and they were not bound by court orders.”

The petition said the statutory functionaries, instead of acting as public servants, were defying the law and the orders of the Supreme Court, high courts and lower courts. Apart from the respondent (the Interior Ministry), the petition said, the FIA director general, Passports and Immigration director general, chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue and the Customs collector committed the contempt of court and they should be issued notices.

Ali contended that the government had ridiculed the judiciary. “The extreme mala fide acts of respondents clearly tantamount to overreaching the orders of the august Supreme Court of Pakistan and the whole judicial system stands ridiculed,” said the petitioner. She said the respondents compounded the contempt, magnified and glorified their authority and rendered the rule of law completely subservient to their whims.