A Sindh High Court division bench directed authorities to remove supermodel Ayyan Ali’s name off the Exit Control List (ECL) on Monday. The additional attorney general needs time to implement the order.
The model requested the court in December to remove her name from the ECL as she is required to travel abroad for professional assignments and medical treatment. In addition to that, she mentioned that she had been released from jail on bail and the authorities had returned her passport, therefore having her name on ECL was illegal.
Ayyan was arrested on 14th March 2015, on charges of money laundering, after customs officials recovered $506,000 from her luggage at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport before she could reportedly board a flight to Dubai.She was granted bail in July last year after spending around four months in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail ─ and after her judicial remand was extended at least 16 times.
A controversial case
The case involving Ayyan, a well-known face took a political turn when the airport entry pass of the personal assistant (PA) to a former president was cancelled for allegedly trying to facilitate Ayyan’s suspected attempt to smuggle money.
Later in June, a customs official who was allegedly investigating the money laundering case against the model was shot dead.
The model was granted a category B ‘VIP’ inmate at Adiala which entitled her to several privileges not available to other inmates because she was “not habitual of a less-than-comfortable lifestyle”.
Her counsel, former Punjab governor Sardar Latif Khan Khosa earlier said his client had been arrested on false charges of money laundering. He further said she told investigators at the initial stages of the investigation that she had acquired the money by selling property. He said the petitioner carried the money to the airport to hand it over to her brother who was arriving from Dubai the same day.