Maryam Nawaz files plea for removal of name form ECL

Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking the removal of her name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

In her petition filed on Saturday, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader argued that her name was placed on the ECL without notice and providing her with an opportunity of hearing through a memorandum dated August 20, 2018, reports Dawn news.

Maryam is currently free on bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) corruption case, in which she is a suspect, but her name remains on the no-fly list.

Her father travelled to London last month after the government and courts granted him permission to fly abroad on medical grounds.

The petition states that the recommendations by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were "acted upon in a mechanical manner and without judicious application of mind in contravention of the law declared by the superior courts".

According to the petition, the apprehension by the government and NAB that Maryam will abscond if allowed to travel abroad does not appeal to reason in view of her track record.

It said that during the filing of corruption references against them by NAB in the Accountability Court of Islamabad, Maryam and her father were attending to her late mother Kulsoom Nawaz who was undergoing cancer treatment in London; despite this, they returned to Pakistan to face the trial.

The petition added that after her mother's demise, it is Maryam who has been looking after her ailing father "who is much dependent upon her" and was "also entitled to relief on compassionate and humanitarian grounds".

The development comes a day after NAB challenged the LHC decision to grant bail to Maryam in the CSM case in the Supreme Court.