ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a review petition filed by former Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Malir Rao Anwar to remove his name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan heard Rao Anwar’s appeal. The bench told Anwar, who is facing judicial proceedings for alleged involvement in at least 444 extrajudicial murders, to approach a relevant forum for removal of his name from the ECL.

The counsel representing the former Karachi cop said that the trial against Anwar was underway in a trial court in the metropolis and his client was appearing before the court at every hearing.

Anwar was placed on the ECL till further order on the directives of the court, Justice Ijaz said, adding that it was not a bail application that the SC could accept.

The Court asked the former police officer to file a new application, if he wanted relief from the courts.

In January last year, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had dismissed former SSP Malir Rao Anwar’s plea seeking exemption from attendance in the Naqeebullah murder case. The SHC judge had remarked that “would it not be discrimination against others, if Rao Anwar is excused from attending court proceedings?”

After the killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud, Anwar was suspended from his post on January 20, 2018. Anwar is prime accused in the murder case of 27-year-old Naqeebullah Mehsud from South Waziristan in a “staged police encounter” in Karachi. He was killed on January 13, 2018.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi in March 2019 had indicted former Malir SSP Rao Anwar and 17 others for the murder of Waziristan native Naqeebullah Mehsud in a fake encounter in Karachi.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022