LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has overruled an objection raised by the registrar office on locus standi (right to agitate a matter before court) of a lawyer to question placing names of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar on exit control list (ECL).

“This objection needs to be looked at on judicial side, therefore, the same is overruled,” said Justice Faisal Zaman Khan in his order.

However, the judge observed that the petitioner did not present the impugned memorandum of the ECL issued by the federal government and granted 15-day time to him to furnish the same.

In his petition, Advocate Shahid Iqbal Chohan contended that the interior ministry placed the names of Sharif family’s members on the ECL without issuing them any show-cause notice. He argued that the Supreme Court in a decision had made it mandatory for the ministry to first seek point of view of a person before putting him on the ECL.

In this case, he said, the ministry never sought an explanation from the former prime minister, his daughter and son-in-law before placing their names on the ECL. The lawyer pleaded that the act of the government was a violation of the fundamental rights of the Sharif family’s members and liable to be set aside. Therefore, he asked the court to pass an order to the interior ministry to remove the names of the Sharif family from the ECL.

The federal cabinet, soon after it was sworn in, had decided to put the names of former premier Nawaz Sharif, Maryam and Safdar on the ECL as part of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government’s anti-corruption campaign. The trio was in jail when they were placed on the no-fly list during August. Later, they were released from the jail following bail granted to them by the Islamabad High Court on Avenfield case.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2018