Pakistan's Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Monday confirmed that Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif has been added to the country's Exit Control List (ECL) after approval from the federal cabinet.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Ahmed said that Shehbaz had not submitted any medical documents for travelling abroad or specify the treatment for his illness, reported Dawn.
"He was the guarantor for his brother Nawaz. But instead of bringing him back, he was trying to flee without having any sehri. This is the only country in the world where, in the span of a day, a case was accepted for hearing, a decision was announced [...] and a ticket was booked," he said.
The Interior Minister also said that Shehbaz had not a request to the court for appointing a representative.
"If Nawaz Sharif did not return then why would Shehbaz? This is a matter of common sense," he said while replying to a query.
Shehbaz's name is already on the provisional national identification list (PNIL) meant to impose a temporary bar on someone to leave the country, according to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Dawn reported.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary also informed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president's name was included in the no-fly list. "The relevant record has been updated in this regard," he said on Twitter.
Last week, the Lahore High Court had granted conditional permission to the PML-N President to travel abroad once for medical treatment. However, hours after he was granted permission, Shahbaz was reportedly stopped from flying to the United Kingdom at Lahore airport on Saturday morning.
According to Dawn, Pakistan's Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) has allegedly placed his name on "another list", preventing him from leaving the country.
"When Shahbaz Sharif came to the airport today, FIA officials stopped him and said he could not travel because there was another list, a 'person-not-in-list'," said PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb on Saturday.
Shahbaz had earlier approached the LHC to challenge the placement of his name on a travel blacklist/no-fly list and seek one-time permission to go abroad for medical treatment.
In the petition, the opposition leader, who is on bail in multiple references of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), contended that the government had previously placed him on the ECL.
Last month, the LHC granted Shahbaz post-arrest bail in a money laundering case. Shahbaz, the brother of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who is in London since 2019, was arrested on September 28, 2020, in the money laundering reference after the LHC refused to further extend his pre-arrest bail.
( With inputs from ANI )
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