ISLAMABAD: The lawyers of former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf are planning to file a petition in the court to get his name removed from the Exit Control List (ECL) after the interior ministry refused to act on their last request of Dec 31.

Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif, senior counsel for the former army chief, told Dawn on Saturday that the wife of Gen Musharraf had also sent an application to the interior ministry for removing her husband’s name from the ECL.

According to him, in her application Sehba Musharraf cited health condition of her husband and requested the competent authorities of the interior ministry to immediately remove Gen Musharraf’s name from the ECL to enable her to take him abroad for medical treatment.

After Gen Musharraf developed some heart problems on Thursday while he was on way to a special court, some sympathisers of the former president are trying to send him abroad. But, apparently this seems impossible as the interior ministry despite repeated requests by Gen Musharraf’s counsel has not removed his name from the ECL.

Danial Gillani, an official of the interior ministry, confirmed that Gen Musharraf’s name was still on the ECL and the government had not decided to remove his name from the list.

Advocate Rana Ijaz, a senior lawyer of Gen Musharraf, told Dawn that soon after the Sindh High Court (SHC) disposed of on Dec 23 the petition seeking removal of Gen Musharraf’s name from the ECL, his lawyers filed an application with the interior ministry for the purpose.

He said another request along with a reminder had been sent to the interior ministry on Dec 31, but the government did not respond to it.

According to him, lawyers of Gen Musharraf would file a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) as well as in the special court constituted to try the former president for high treason next week if the government did not respond to the request. It may be mentioned here that the name of Gen Musharraf was included in the ECL in March last year after he approached the SHC for obtaining a transitory bail. The SHC directed Gen Musharraf to appear in the sessions courts concerned to face three cases — the Benazir Bhutto murder case, Akbar Khan Bugti murder case and judges detention case — in which he had been declared a proclaimed offender.

Subsequently, Gen Musharraf surrendered before the trial courts and was apprehended by investigation agencies. He, however, obtained bail in all the cases after a tough legal battle.

Advocate Ijaz said the special court had neither issued arrest warrants nor barred Gen Musharraf from travelling abroad.

Meanwhile, an official of the Federal Investigation Agency told this reporter that the interior ministry could not remove Gen Musharraf’s name from the ECL as the special court had already taken cognizance of his alleged offence.

“It is up to the court now whether it would require presence of Gen Musharraf in the country or would allow him to travel abroad. The ministry could remove his name from the ECL if Gen Musharraf would have filed the same request before the issuance of court’s summons to him,” he said.

The official, however, said that there was a possibility that the federal government — the complainant in the high treason case — might soften its stance in the court and not raise objection on Gen Musharraf’s request to the court of allowing him to travel abroad.