KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday once again ordered the Ministry of Interior to remove Model Ayyan Ali’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL). However, it suspended the operation of its own order for seven days.
A two-member bench, headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh, pronounced its verdict, which was reserved last week. The court directed the relevant authorities to remove Ayyan Ali’s name from the list which restrained her to go out of the country.
Earlier, the verdict was reserved on Ayyan’s petition, seeking contempt proceedings against the Interior Ministry for not removing her name from the ECL despite the court’s order.
The additional attorney general stated the government wanted to go the apex court against the order but needed some time for this purpose. He requested the court to suspend its order, while accepting the request the SHC delayed the operation of its order for seven days.
In the contempt plea Ayyan submitted in March 2016, the SHC had directed the relevant authorities to remove her name from the ECL, but the same was re-included in the list.
It is pertinent to mention here that similar decision came in March this year in which the SHC had allowed the super model to go abroad but it was challenged in the Supreme Court. Eventually, the apex court had upheld the SHC’s decision too.
After the apex court’s verdict, Ayyan had booked the ticket to travel abroad for her professional assignments but she was stopped from leaving the country at Jinnah International Airport on April 20 as her name existed in the ECL. Taking grievance to the court once again, the model approached the SHC in the present petition.
The scandal came to light when the super model was arrested from Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Airport, Islamabad on March 14, 2015 when she was allegedly trying to smuggle half million US dollars abroad.
