KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday directed ministry of interior to remove the names of wife and mother of former Sindh minister Sharjeel Inam Memon from exit control list.

A double bench headed by Justice K.K. Agha allowed review petition filed by the former minister’s wife and mother seeking removal of their names from no-fly list, and directed the petitioners to return as and when required to appear in person before trial court concerned.

The petitioners’ counsel contended that the SHC had placed their names on ECL while granting them bail in August last year after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) nominated them as accused in the reference filed against Mr Memon in 2019 for allegedly accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.

NAB prosecutor opposed the petition and argued that the petitioners would abscond if they were allowed to go abroad but the bench observed that the indictment had not been made yet in the reference and the trial could take at least three years to complete because there were 12 accused and 56 prosecution witnesses in the case.

If the petitioners’ names were kept on ECL till the conclusion of the trial, it would violate their fundamental human rights, said the judges, directing the petitioners to return as and when required to appear in person before the trial court.

NAB had filed the reference in an accountability court against the former minister, his family members and other accused for allegedly accumulating illegal assets of around Rs2.4 billion and getting properties registered in the names of his family members and various other people.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2021