Kazmi moves IHC for deletion of name from ECL

ISLAMABAD: Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi former federal minister for religious affairs approached Islamabad High Court (IHC) for deletion of his name from Exit Control List (ECL).

Federation through Secretary Ministry of Interior, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) through its Director General and state were cited as respondents.

Rai Mudassar Iqbal counsel for the petitioner stated that during the tenure of former federal minister certain irregularities in conduct of Hajj operation were reported in national press.

However a crime case remained under investigation by the various investigation officers of FIA and the petitioner faced trail of the crime case in which the Judge Special Court convicted him in its vide judgment dated 3.6.2016.

The petitioner being aggrieved party filed criminal appeal before the Islamabad High Court dated 03.06.2016 which was allowed by the August court vide its judgment dated 08.03.2017, and the petitioner was acquitted of all the charges framed agasint him in the trail.

During investigation of the case the name of the petitioner placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) by the respondents.

He said that names of co-accused Rao Shakeel Ahmed and Rao Abdul Jalil Khan has already been ordered to be deleted from the ECL by respondents, but despite provision of acquittal order passed by the IHC, respondents were reluctant to delete the name of petitioner from ECL without any rhyme or reason.

He alleged that it was miscarriage of justice and infringement of fundamental right of the petitioner as guaranteed under the constitution of Pakistan.

Iqbal said that petitioner had to perform Hujj but could not do so due to placement of his name on ECL and now he attended to perform Umra but again was under travel ban, which deprived the the right of freedom of movement of the petition.

He further requested the court to allow the petitioner to travel abroad for performance of Umra and medical examination and sought direction for the respondents to be restrained from stopping the movement of the petitioner within or outside Pakistan in any manner.