ISLAMABAD: The interior ministry has pleaded before the Supreme Court that model Ayyan Ali is not entitled to any relief due to the serious nature of her offence and the subsequent suppression of material facts on her part.

In an appeal, the ministry said the rules for placing names on the Exit Control List (ECL) did not provide anyone the opportunity of defending themselves before their names were placed on it. But Ms Ali was provided 15 days to seek a review of the decision, which she did not avail.

A three-judge bench is hearing the appeal against removing her name from the ECL. The appeal expressed apprehensions that the model might leave the country to escape further proceedings.

But in a rejoinder to the appeal, Ms Ali contended that she desperately needed to travel abroad to fulfil her professional obligations and to visit her ailing mother in the United Arab Emirates. She said that not being able to leave the country was causing her financial losses since she was not able to fulfil her contractual obligations.

The ministry said the model’s contention that the letter regarding the placing of her name on the ECL had not been delivered to her was inaccurate.

The memorandum was dispatched to her address in Karachi on Nov 20 last year, but returned because of incomplete address.

Referring to the Sindh High Court’s directives that the ECL be uploaded on the interior ministry’s website, which were issued suo motu, the petition said that doing so might create social and cultural problems for people whose names were on the list. This, the ministry said, would foster hate towards such individuals irrespective of whether they were guilty.

The ministry pleaded that the Supreme Court suspends the SHC judgment until the case was decided.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2016