KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday directed the Interior Ministry and incharge Jinnah International Airport to submit their respective comments on a petition of model Ayyan Ali, challenging restriction on her travelling abroad.
A division bench of the SHC had taken up the petition filed by Ayyan, seeking removal of her name from the Exit Control List.
At the outset of the hearing, federal law officer Salman Talibuddin sought time to submit comments of the respondent authorities. While granting his request, the court adjourned the hearing till January 15. The supermodel filed the constitutional petition through her counsel, submitting that the special court of customs, excise and taxation Islamabad had granted her plea for the return of her passport which was confiscated when she was arrested in currency smuggling case.
Subsequently, her name was placed on ECL naming the interior ministry and incharge Jinnah International Airport, Karachi as respondents, she contended that she was shocked to learn through the media that her name has been placed on the ECL. She added that she was not served any prior notice, nor was she provided with any plausible reason and ground for decision to disallow her from travelling abroad.
She submitted in the petition that she was not supplied the copy of such decision. Therefore, she said, she has been constrained to file this petition without copy of such decision and seek legal remedy.
The decision has added to her misery, she said while adding she was left with no adequate remedy in law and therefore she moved the court seeking annulment of the decision. She argued that the restriction on her travelling abroad had been imposed in a violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 18 of the Constitution. Besides, she submitted that the authorities did not follow the rules for placing her name on the ECL as according to the rules, a committee is required to be constituted to decide the placement of a name on the ECL. Neither the committee was constituted nor was there any court order for placing her name on ECL.
The name has been placed in secrecy she added while pleading to the court to declare the placement of her name on the ECL as illegal and order the authorities to remove her name.
Ayyan was arrested by Customs officials from Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad, on March 14 when she tried to smuggler 506,800 dollars out of the country.
