The Ministry of Interior has placed the name of supermodel Ayyan Ali on the Exit Control List (ECL) following a letter of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), it is learnt. Sources told Business Recorder, here on Thursday that the FBR wrote a letter to the Ministry of Interior to decide the issue of placing Ayyan Ali's name on the ECL as per law based on facts communicated to the Interior Ministry. The FBR has not specifically requested the Interior Ministry to place her name on the ECL.
The ministry official sources have confirmed that the name of the supermodel has been placed on the ECL.
According to sources, the FBR informed the Interior Ministry that the Collector Adjudication had imposed a penalty of Rs 50 million. The customs penalty has been imposed for violations of foreign exchange regulations, section 3(s) of Customs Act relating to smuggling and section 32 of the Customs Act 1969 for mis-declaration. The Collector Adjudication (Customs) has issued an order-in-original for confiscation of the smuggled amount and one time customs penalty has been imposed. The demand notice has been issued by the adjudication authorities to Ayyan Ali for payment of the adjudicated amount.
On a query of Ministry of Interior, the FBR further revealed that the income tax intelligence department has framed a separate case against the model for concealment of income. Two known properties of Ayyan Ali have already been attached by the income tax department. Her bank account and another apartment in Karachi were attached by the tax department. After attachment of bank accounts, an amount of Rs 3.2 million was recovered and legal proceedings are underway, sources said.
Following the directives of the Supreme Court, Ministry of Interior had removed Ayyan Ali's name from the ECL a few days ago to avoid contempt of court proceedings.
"If she was allowed to leave the country without depositing the fine, the model may not return to the country," source said.
Ayyan Ali had filed a writ petition in the SC against Ministry of Interior for not removing her name from ECL. The contempt of court petition has made interior secretary, additional interior secretary and in-charge terminal Karachi airport as respondents.
In the writ petition, she maintained that she would suffer a huge financial loss if the authorities concerned did not remove her name from the ECL immediately and added that if the government can remove former President General) Pervez Musharraf's (retd) name from ECL, then why not hers?
Ayyan Ali was arrested by custom authorities on Mar 14, 2015, on charges of money laundering after being caught with US $500,000 cash by customs officials at Benazir Bhutto International Airport.