Sharif’s plea to lift travel ban rejected

Islamabad: The Interior Ministry on Saturday rejected former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Mohammed Safdar’s request seeking removal of their names from the Exit Control List (ECL).

The three had stated that “Rule 2 of Exit From Pakistan Rules 2010” did not apply to them. They further said that “they were not involved in corruption, misuse of authority, terrorism or any conspiracy and thus their names should be removed from ECL”.

The decision to place the names of Nawaz, Maryam and Safdar on ECL was taken during the first federal cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan on August 20, 2018.

In October 2018, the three had separately written letters to the Interior Ministry seeking removal of their names from the ECL.

Earlier, in July, an accountability court in Islamabad had convicted Nawaz, Maryam and Safdar in the Avenfield properties reference and sentenced them to 11 years, eight years and one year, respectively, in prison.

In September, Nawaz and Maryam were released from jail after the Islamabad High Court suspended their sentences in the Avenfield case.

On Dec 24, 2018, the Accountability Court 2 of Islamabad had handed seven-year rigorous imprisonment to Nawaz along with a fine of Rs1.5 billion and $25 million in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills/Hill Metal Establish­ment reference. It had, however, acquitted him in the Flagship Investments reference.