News Desk |
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Saturday has reportedly decided to move the court for the inclusion of Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan and other federal ministers’ names in Exit Control List (ECL).
In a response to placing PPP leaders on ECL, the party has given a deadline of one week to the government to withdraw the decision or else, it will approach the court.
Earlier, on Jan 10, after the decision of Cabinet meeting under leadership of PM Khan, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry had announced that the matter pertaining to the inclusion of names on the ECL would be reviewed after receiving the detailed judgment of Supreme Court.
He said that the Ministry of Law informed the cabinet that the names of 172 people had been included in the ECL on the request of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT).
The minister said the law ministry suggested the cabinet that since no formal or written verdict has yet been received from the Supreme Court on the subject, so any further proceedings about the ECL issue should be deferred for the time being.
Chaudhry went on to say that the federal cabinet has ruled out a request by the Interior Ministry to remove names of 20 people from the ECL in the fake bank accounts case.
However, the reason of such act has not been mentioned yet. Currently, National Accountability Bureau is conducting an inquiry against PM Khan over 74-hours unofficial use of two government helicopters. The watchdog says PTI should have paid KP government Rs11.1 million for the helicopter but documentary evidence show that chairman PTI had paid only Rs2.1 million.
The case has no comparison with the fake accounts mega corruption scam of Asif Ali Zardari’s clan.
A day after the government put namea of Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Faryal Talpur and other 172 in ECL, on Dec 29, PPP leader Farhatullah Babar wrote a letter to Interior Minister Shehryar Afridi demanding names of PM Khan, some of his ministers and party leaders to be put on no fly list, since there was investigations going on against said leaders.
The threatening attitude of PPP seems nothing more than a desperate attempt to get leverage for their leadership; which is not very likely to happen.