Islamabad HC accepts PIL to bar Sharif, kin from going abroad

The Islamabad High Court has agreed to hear on Monday a petition calling for the names of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members to be added to the Exit Control List (ECL). The petition, filed by lawyer Raees Abdulwahid on Thursday, asks that the names of Nawaz Sharif, his children, Hassan, Hussain and Maryam, son-in-law Mohammad Safdar, and former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar be barred from going abroad and their accounts frozen. The petition comes days after the Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling on the Panama Papers case, unseated Nawaz Sharif as PM.

The July 28 judgment ruled that Sharif had been "dishonest" to the judiciary and Parliament. The SC had also ordered the National Accountability Bureau to open six cases against the Sharif family. In its Executive Board Meeting (EBM) on July 31, the NAB chairman also ordered 16 pending inquiries against Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, to be done.