IT’S a new take on that old aphorism, locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.

The former premier and his daughter are behind bars, having returned voluntarily from the UK following their conviction on graft charges.

Moreover, their bail pleas were rejected by the court and a decision on petitions seeking suspension of their sentence has been deferred.

However, the new government, in its very first cabinet meeting on Monday, made the decision to place Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz on the Exit Control List.

NAB had sent several requests to the PML-N government since last year asking that this be done, but the previous administration refused to do so.

The federal accountability body was finally granted its wish, but one fails to see the point.

However, though short on logic, the move makes for good optics.

It demonstrates the new government’s avowed zeal in dealing with corruption with an iron hand, particularly when the individuals at the receiving end are some of those seen as personifying the PML-N government’s excesses.

At the same time, the action is so superfluous as to betray a certain unsettling vindictiveness.

After all, the decision to place Nawaz and Maryam on the no-fly list could have been taken in the event of the court suspending their sentence or granting them bail.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s address to the nation on Sunday evening unveiled a wide-ranging agenda which requires extensive work in areas long neglected; his administration should be looking ahead to the task at hand while the legal process against the former premier takes its course.

The ECL has long been a handy tool for witch-hunting political opponents, or indeed any individual who falls foul of the powers that be.

And why would it not be seen as such, considering it is a holdover from the dark days of Gen Zia, specifically his Exit from Pakistan (Control) Ordinance 1981? Surely the new government would like to chart a better, more democratic course.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2018