LAHORE, Jan 19: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Chairperson Asma Jehangir was briefly stopped from travelling abroad by the immigration staff at Allama Iqbal International Airport on Saturday morning.

Asma was taking an Emirates flight to Dubai at the start of a UN mission. She was told that she could not board the plane because her name was on the Exit Control List (ECL).

Taken aback by the information, the HRCP chairperson was further surprised by the ‘disclosure’ that her name was on the ECL since November 2007.

When Asma said she had travelled abroad several times since November, the airport staff held consultations with their superiors and finally allowed her to fly out of the country.

“Perhaps I was put on the ECL - like Munir A Malik - when we were placed under house arrest (by the authorities) to protect Pakistan from terrorists and nobody bothered to revise the list,” Asma later told Dawn.