Customs court once again issues arrest warrants for Ayyan Ali

RAWALPINDI: Ordering arrest of Ayyan Ali, a special court on customs, excise and taxation in Rawalpindi on Saturday issued bailable warrants for her in the currency smuggling case owing to her continual absence from court.

Presiding over the court, Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta said that the model failed to show up despite repeatedly being summoned at the hearings.

The court warned that if the accused was not produced before it on October 6 then strict action would be taken against her.

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A junior lawyer and representative of Ayyan Ali, Syed Iqbal Hussain apprised the court that she could not appear before the court for she was unwell. He requested that she be granted temporary absence from the hearings.

Earlier, a customs court in Rawalpindi last year in June turned down the model girl’s plea seeking cancellation of arrest warrants.

During the court proceedings, Ali’s counsel Latif Khosa had argued that his client was out of the country, hence she could not attend the hearing.

He requested the court to cancel Ayyan Ali’s arrest orders while assuring that she would appear before the court in the next hearing, which never happened.

Judge Raza Ghazanfar was hearing the case in absence of Justice Sheraz Kiyani as the duty judge. He ruled that he (as duty judge) could not cancel the arrest warrants and only a trial court could take a decision while noting that Ayyan Ali didn’t appear before the court despite continuous summon.

Customs official informed the court that the arrest warrants had also been delivered to Ali’s Karachi residence but no arrests were made.

Subsequently, the judge upheld Ayyan’s arrest warrants and asked her to appear before the court in the next hearing.

Ayyan Ali has been in the media limelight since March 2016 when authorities, acting on a tip-off, nabbed her at the VIP lounge of Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad on money laundering charges before she could board a flight to Dubai.

It is worth mentioning here that under Pakistani laws, a citizen is barred to carry over $10,000 on a flight. However, the authorities had found $506,800 tucked in her luggage.

She was released on bail in July last year and her lawyer said she had no intention to take money outside Pakistan.