LAHORE, June 27: The Lahore High Court directed the interior ministry on Friday to delete the name of the PPP leader Khalid Kharal from the exit control list.

Another single bench also allowed PPP’s former commerce minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar to leave abroad for seven weeks.

Mr Kharal had challenged the inclusion of his name in the list during 1996, alleging that his name was placed on the list without any legal justification while Mr Mukhtar had sought the permission from the court to leave abroad.

While allowing the petition of Khalid Kharal, the chief justice observed that there was no substantive material available on the record to further support the existence of the name in the ECL.

The court ruled that the NAB had failed to come up with a final reference against the petitioner during the last seven years and his name could not remain on the ECL for an indefinite period.

It further observed that he could not be denied relief on the basis of a reference which was yet to be filed.

Earlier, Deputy Attorney-General Nawaz Bhatti argued that currently an inquiry was going on against the former minister on charges of misusing an OGDC plane and the NAB had requested the interior ministry not to delete his name from the ECL since it was likely to file a reference against him on corruption charges.

“He might abscond if he is allowed to go abroad following the deletion of his name from the ECL” the DAG feared. He, however, said that the ministry was willing to give him one-time permission for going abroad with the court’s permission.

AHMAD MUKHTAR CASE: Justice M. Javed Buttar allowed the petition of Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar for going abroad for seven weeks to perform Ummra before visiting the US and Europe for business purposes.