SWABI: Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leaders Ali Wazir and Dr Said Alam Mahsud submitted an application for pre-arrest bail in a local court on Saturday.

The two along with PTM MNA Mohsin Dawar were stopped from flying to Dubai at Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday because their names are on the exit control list (ECL).

They were told that their names were put on the ECL because of several offences committed by them at the controversial public meeting held at Government High School playground in Swabi on Aug 13. A total of 19 people were nominated in the FIR registered at the Swabi city police station on the day of the public meeting.

Liaquat Yousafzai, PTM district head, said that MNA Mohsin Dawar did not come to Swabi because he had already secured bail before arrest.

Mr Wazir, the other MNA, told Dawn that they stayed at the FIA’s Peshawar office at night and arrived at the Swabi judicial complex in the morning where he submitted an application in the court of additional session judge of Swabi, Ijazul Haq Awan.

He said it was against the spirit of freedom to put their names on the ECL. “It was not a constitutional act,” he added.

There was a constitutional procedure for lawmakers under which the speaker of the National Assembly would have to be informed before their names were placed on the ECL, he pointed out. “We were stopped at the Bacha Khan Airport without any such procedure,” he complained.

The two lawmakers and Dr Mahsud would appear before the court on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2018