LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday dismissed an application seeking a direction to place former federal minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar and his brother former provincial minister Hashim Jawan Bakht on the exit control list (ECL) on charges of accumulating illegal assets.

Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi sustained a registrar office objection and dismissed the petition as not maintainable.

The office had questioned the maintainability of the petition saying the petitioner was not an aggrieved person.

Ahsan Abid, a lawyer from Rahim Yar Khan, filed the civil miscellaneous application in his pending main petition against the Khusro brothers. He alleged that the former minister and his brother owned six sugar mills, several investment companies and agricultural land. He said these assets were beyond known sources of their income.

He said the names of the Khusro brothers appeared in “Pandora Papers” and “Swiss Papers” but no action had been initiated against them.

He said Multan office of NAB had conducted an inquiry during 2018 into the assets of the family and found them unexplained. However, later the matter was transferred to NAB headquarters with recommendation for a complete inquiry and further action in accordance with law.

The lawyer said the NAB was bound to complete the inquiry and submit its report before the relevant accountability court but it was never done.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2022