The Sindh High Court (SHC) Thursday (today) has directed authorities to remove Ayyan Ali’s name from Exit Control List (ECL).
The SHC issued the ruling after hearing Ayyan’s contempt of court petition against federal Interior Ministry.
The court declared null and void federal government’s notification that barred her from leaving the country. The bench directed Interior Ministry to lift the travel ban, granting seven days to the government to file its appeal.
Model Ayyan Ali’s counsel filed a contempt of court plea at the SHC for not removing his client’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL) despite Supreme Court orders.
The Supreme Court has already allowed Ayyan Ali to fly for abroad to meet her mother. She had claimed that her mother is under treatment in Dubai.
At first, the Interior Ministry had Ayyan’s name stricken off from the ECL. However, the FIA had contacted the ministry and urged it to keep the supermodel on ECL, since she was being investigated for money laundering. The Interior Ministry had then included Ayyan’s name again in the ECL.
Ayyan’s name was put on ECL on November 20, 2015, a day before she was indicted in a currency smuggling case by a Rawalpindi customs court.
Earlier on April 13, the apex court had upheld the Sindh High Court’s March 7 verdict of removing her name from the ECL with an observation that the apprehension that removal of the model’s name from the ECL would amount to letting her off for good was misconceived.
The model was arrested in March 2015 on the charges of money laundering after customs officials recovered $506,000 from her luggage at Benazir Bhutto International Airport when she was going to Dubai. In July last year, she was granted bail after spending four months in the Adiala Jail.
