Ayyan again placed on ECL after federal govt's plea

KARACHI: Supermodel Ayyan Ali had a moment of euphoria when the Sindh High Court announced striking her name off the Exit Control List, but it lasted less than an hour when the same court accepted the federal government’s plea for review in the case, ARY News reported.

Moments after the SHC judge, Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto gave a verdict for removing Ayyan’s name from the ECL, the federal government counsel filed a plea seeking time to file its reply.

The SHC accepted the center’s application and stopped implementation on its earlier order.

Previous hearing

On January 9, the Sindh High Court had reserved its verdict over Ayyan Ali’s petition seeking withdrawal of her name from the ECL.

Referee judge of Sindh High Court Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto heard the petition of the model seeking immediate withdrawal of her name from the list.

Ayyan’s counsel Latif Khosa, in his arguments, said that his client’s name was not removed from ECL despite being ordered by the court, which is contempt of the court.

He asked the court to provide justice to his client.

Additional Attorney General informed the court that the model’s name was removed from ECL but it was included again following a fresh memorandum. He said that the government of Punjab has included Ayyan’s name in the ECL.

The additional attorney general said that the murder case of a customs inspector is under proceeding against Ayyan.

The case background

Ayyan Ali was arrested on March 14, 2015 on charges of money laundering after customs officials had recovered over 500,000 US dollars from her luggage at Islamabad airport before she could reportedly board a flight to Dubai.

Ali remained in jail for around 128 days before finally getting a bail, since then the model is facing travel ban.