Monday, Jan 30, 2017

Islamabad: Pakistani supermodel Ayyan Ali, accused in a currency smuggling case, won a legal battle on Monday to remove her name from a federal government Exit Control List (ECL) barring her from leaving the country.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar rejected the federal interior ministry’s appeal, and upheld a Sindh High Court order to the government to strike the name of the model off the ECL, thus clearing the way for her to travel abroad.

The chief justice regretted that a long time had passed since the currency smuggling case was registered against the model in June 2015 but the investigation had not been completed so far.

In a petition submitted to the top court on Saturday the interior ministry contended that the model’s name was put on the ECL on the request of the Punjab province and thus it could not be removed by the order of the High Court of Sindh.

The model had stated that the ban on her travel abroad was a violation of fundamental rights guaranteed under the constitution.

The model was arrested on March 14, 2015, on charges of money laundering after customs officials allegedly recovered $506,000 (Dh1.85 billion) from her luggage at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport before she could board a flight to a Gulf country.

A customs court in November 2015 indicted Ayyan, who pleaded not guilty.

She was granted bail in July 2016 after spending around four months in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, and after her judicial remand was extended 16 times.

By Mohsin Ali Correspondent

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