Federal govt removed name of Faryal Talpur from ECL, SHC told

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday disposed of a petition filed by Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Faryal Talpur, who is also the sister of PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, against the inclusion of her name on the Exit Control List, following a decision of the federal government to lift ban on her travelling abroad.

Faryal, who has been facing a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference pertaining to fake accounts before an accountability court in Islamabad, had challenged the placement of her name on the ECL.

The petitioner’s counsel, Abid S Zuberi, had earlier submitted that she was facing a corruption inquiry and investigation for last couple of years. He submitted that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had first initiated an inquiry with regard to fake accounts and later that inquiry was transferred to NAB. He added that the petitioner's name had been on the ECL on the FIA’s recommendation since December 27, 2018.

On Friday, Zuberi placed a memorandum of the federal government which stated that the name of the petitioner had been deleted from the ECL in accordance with the Rule 2 of the Exit from Pakistan (Control) Rules 2010. He said after the statement of the federal government, he did not want to press the instant petition and requested the high court to dispose of the petition with a direction to return the surety amount already deposited by the petitioner.

A division bench of the high court headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro, after taking the statement on record, disposed of the petition with a direction to the office to return the surety amount to the petitioner that she had submitted before the court after due verification and identification as per the rules.

It is pertinent to mention that the high court had earlier granted Faryal permission to travel abroad on a one-off basis from November 29 till December 28 subject to furnishing a solvent surety in sum of Rs25 million.

The SHC had observed that the name of the petitioner was placed on the ECL on the FIA’s recommendation, not by any court. The bench observed that many other persons involved in serious NAB references, including former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and others, accused of causing multi-billion-rupee losses to the national exchequer had been granted one-off permission to travel abroad, whereas the potential loss caused by the petitioner to the exchequer as per the NAB reference was Rs30 million.