22 December 2004	Wednesday	09 Ziqa'ad 1425

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KARACHI, Dec 21: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to interior ministry and the passport office for Dec 29 in a petition moved by PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari against denial of passport and inclusion of his name in the exit control list.

Petitioner's counsel Farooq H. Naek submitted before a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Maqbool Baqar, that his client was released by the Supreme Court on bail after eight years of incarceration. No condition on his right to travel abroad was attached to the bail order.

Mr Zardari, he said, wanted to proceed abroad to meet his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and their children and also for medical treatment. The passport office, however, declined to issue him a passport. It was learnt that his name was placed on the ECL arbitrarily and without any justification on Jan 25, 2002.

The counsel submitted that the travel ban on the petitioner was violative of his fundamental rights. Not only the decision to put the petitioner on the ECL but the very law under which it was taken, the Exit from Pakistan (Control) Ordinance, 1981, was unlawful and unconstitutional, he argued.

Meanwhile, the petition moved by Mr Zardari for employing armed guards and travelling in a vehicle with tinted glasses for his security is fixed for hearing by the bench on Wednesday. The bench had allowed him interim relief in the petition.