Model Ayyan Ali’s passport may not be coming back anytime soon.
Customs officials have prepared a report in response to a petition filed by the model asking that her passport be returned, Pakistan Today has learnt. The report argues that the passport not be returned to the model.
The investigation and prosecution team will submit their reports on Wednesday before Customs Judge Rana Aftab Ahmed Khan, who is likely to decide the fate of the petition on the same day, well-placed sources said.
On November 12, Ayyan’s Counsel Khuram Latif Khosa filed a petition before the court to obtain her passport from the custody of the custom’s investigators.
Ayyan’s counsel adopted the stance that international advertising companies have signed agreements with his client and if the passport was not returned to her, these agreements will be cancelled, resulting in financial losses to her.
However, Customs officials have argued that if the passport is handed over to the accused, she might abscond from the country. Customs officials have also attached reports of intelligence agencies regarding the suspicious activities of the accused, with reference to her attempts to run away from the country, sources said.
The model was arrested from Benazir Bhutto International Airport with $500,000 in March this year. The Airport Security Force intercepted her and recovered the amount from her luggage. Under Pakistan’s law, no one can carry more than $10,000 on a flight.
She was released on bail after spending four months in Adiala Jail.
On November 20, the model was indicted in the currency scandal case. She pleaded not guilty.
Later her name was included in Exit Control List (ECL), essentially banning her from travelling abroad.
Meanwhile, Ayyan Ali rebuked media reports that she was trying to flee the country, on twitter.
“Had I been any other country on this baseless news of me trying to flying out my country when I had officially and legally applied for my passport before the court, I would successfully sue some of the channels for damages but in our beloved homeland not even the Army, national interest and Parliament is safe from them,” she posted on twitter.
