KARACHI: Model Ayyan Ali was not allowed to board a plane on Wednesday evening just hours after the federal government had informed the Sindh High Court that her name had been struck off the Exit Control List (ECL) in compliance with the court order.

Though there was no official word from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), sources said their officials disallowed her from flying to Dubai after she had got the boarding pass for an Emirates flight (EK-609).

The officials spotted her at the FIA immigration counter at Quaid-i-Azam International Airport. “The model was informed by the senior FIA officials that she could not fly because her name was on the ECL,” said a source.

“The model argued with the officials and referred to the Sindh High Court orders but she finally left the airport when the FIA told her that her name had been placed again on the ECL.”

Advocate Qadir Khan Mandokhel, counsel for Ayyan Ali, who accompanied her at the airport confirmed the latest development. He called it a contempt of court order by the interior ministry.

“It was clearly ordered [by the SHC] that her name would not be placed on the ECL again without informing the court but the interior ministry ignored those directives. We would move the court against the interior ministry for this contempt of court,” he told Dawn.

The EK-609 flight departed at 7.38pm without the model aboard as her boarding pass was stamped ‘off-loaded’ by the FIA. Earlier, the Sindh High Court was informed on Wednesday that the federal government had struck the name of model Ayyan Ali off the ECL in compliance with the court order issued on June 2.

Interior secretary Arif Ahmed Khan appeared before a two-judge bench of the SHC and placed the June 15 memorandum of the interior ministry that stated the name of the model had been deleted from the list in compliance with the SHC order.

Headed by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, the bench had earlier warned the interior secretary of contempt of court proceedings against him in case the model’s name was not removed from the ECL by Wednesday.

Earlier on June 2, a two-judge bench had directed the interior ministry to strike her name off the ECL on an application of the model.

The interior ministry on court directions had removed her name from the ECL, but her name was again placed on the list just a few hours later at the request of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). The model moved a contempt of court application in the SHC that declared the ministry’s memorandum for putting her name back on the ECL illegal and asked the interior ministry to move the apex court against the SHC order within seven days. Subsequently, the ministry approached the Supreme Court for a second time to challenge the SHC order. The first time the ministry had moved the apex court on April 2 to challenge the March 7 judgement of the SHC that had called for the removal of the model’s name from the ECL.According to the prosecution, the model was arrested on March 14, 2015, at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad while trying to travel abroad and carrying foreign currency worth $506,800 without permission of the State Bank of Pakistan and without any lawful excuse why she was taking the money abroad.

The case against the model took a political turn when the airport entry pass of the personal assistant to a former president cancelled for allegedly trying to facilitate Ayyan’s suspected attempt to smuggle money. Later in June 2015, a customs official who was allegedly investigating the money laundering case against the model was shot dead.The model was granted bail in July 2015 after she spent around four months in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail while her judicial remand was extended at least 16 times.

In December 2015, Ayyan Ali had approached the court seeking removal of her name from the list. According to her, she was required to travel abroad for professional assignments and medical treatment, and since she had been released from jail on bail, her name should be struck off the ECL. Her counsel said that having her name on the ECL was illegal, as the authorities had already returned her passport.

She said the government decision to disallow her from travelling abroad was a violation of her fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 18 of the Constitution.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2016