ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the former senior superintendent of police, Rao Anwar, to file a fresh review petition along with the earlier order of the court for the removal of his name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

The top court’s bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, heard the case.

Malik Naeem Iqbal, the counsel for Rao Anwar, recalled before the court that the Supreme Court had taken a suo motu notice of Naqeebullah Mehsud’s murder in which his client had been arrested.

He said that the court had granted Anwar post-arrest bail, but his name was still on the ECL.

Justice Bandial remarked that there was a procedure for removal of the name of any person from the no-fly list.

When the judge asked the counsel why Rao Anwar intended to go abroad, the lawyer for the petitioner said the former SSP wanted to meet his family and that was the reason he had sought removal of his name from the ECL.

When the court inquired whether Rao Anwar was facing any other inquiry in addition to the Naqeebullah murder case, the lawyer for the complainant said that there were stories that he was involved in the murder of 444 people.

The lawyer informed the court that his client was also facing NAB’s inquiry for owning assets beyond his known means of income.

The bench remarked that such inquiries were pending agai­nst several people, but in the instant case “we are not examining any other matter”.

The court then adjourned the hearing till a date to be fixed by the registrar office.

On Jan 10, the Supreme Court had rejected Rao Anwar’s plea seeking removal of his name from the ECL.

The former SSP has been facing trial since last year in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case.

The 27-year-old native of Waziristan was killed, along with three other suspected terrorists, on Jan 13 last year in an alleged encounter with a police team, headed by Anwar.

However, Naqeebullah’s family said that the deceased was innocent and he was killed in a fake encounter with police.

A joint investigation team, formed to probe Naqeebullah’s killing, held Rao Anwar responsible for the murder. In its findings, the JIT wrote that Rao Anwar was present at the crime scene.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2019