Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Friday criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for placing names of top party leaders on the Exit Control List (ECL) and said that Prime Minister Imran Khan should also be banned from flying aboard as he is also facing an inquiry of National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
PPP leader Dr Nafisa Shah said in a tweet, "How can a chief minister's name be (on) ECL? What if he has to visit a country on his official work? By this standard Prime Minister Imran Khan should be on the ECL too as he is under inquiry in the NAB. This is not a government; it is a mob that is demolishing the system."
She claimed while talking to media, "ECL should not be used as a mean for political blackmailing. We will not allow two laws to run in one country."
Another PPP leader Senator Sherry Rehman also criticised the government's move and said, "Tehreek-e-Inteqaam (movement of revenge) has shown its real face by placing Bilawal's name on ECL."
She alleged that Advisor to the Prime Minister on Accountability Barrister Shahzad Akbar used to be in Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) office. She said, "We are not scared of this mutual understanding between PTI and the joint investigation team (JIT)."
Earlier, the federal government Friday released a list of 172 suspects whose names have been placed on the ECL in view of a report submitted by a joint investigation team (JIT) in the Supreme Court in the long-running money laundering case.
Top PPP leaders, including party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, former President Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur, are among those placed on the no-fly list. The names of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and former Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah are also included in the list.
Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, the spokesman of Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has also strongly condemned the act of placing Chairman Bilawal Bhutto's name on the ECL.
Khokhar said that Imran Khan is following the footsteps of dictators Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf by using anti-democratic means to create hurdles for PPP. He said that the "PM-select" has resorted to petty ways of opposing PPP by misusing the institutions.
Khokhar said that the PPP will always stand for what is right and will protect the supremacy, honour and integrity of the Parliament. It is not for the first time that the PPP is facing such issues and truth will prevail yet again, he concluded.