ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday restrained the Sindh High Court from passing any adverse order against the government in a contempt of court case for not removing the name of super model Ayyan Ali from the Exit Control List.

“In the interest of justice, till the next date of hearing, ……, no adverse order shall be passed against the present appellants (interior ministry),” said a two-page order dictated by a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed. The restraining order will continue to hold the field until the Supreme Court takes up and decides the present case on June 27.

The bench had taken up an appeal of the interior ministry challenging the June 2 Sindh High Court order for removing the name of Ayyan Ali from ECL.

The apex court noted that pursuant to June 2 SHC order, the model had also initiated two separate proceedings before the high court, first concerning the challenge against the interior ministry’s decision of placing the name of Ayyan Ali again in the ECL while the other relating to the contempt of the court case under Article 204 of the Constitution for breaching the orders of the high court by not removing the name of the model from the ECL.

The contempt petition is likely to be taken up by the SHC in the next week commencing from June 27.

The contempt petition in the high court was moved when the name of the model was placed again on the ECL by the interior ministry at the behest of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on the grounds that the model was facing a trial on money laundering charges before the customs court.

The model was arrested on March 14, 2014, from the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2016