Exit Control List (ECL) Inducts NRO Beneficiaries

by Owais Ehsan on December 18, 2009

Great news for all the people of Pakistan. The Interior Ministry has placed the names of 248 NRO beneficiaries on the Exit Control List (ECL) on the directives of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). NAB had sent a list of 248 beneficiaries of the defunct NRO that included federal ministers and bigwigs of the government, bureaucracy and political parties for putting their names on the ECL. The people whose names had been put on the exit control list included the department’s top boss and Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

The names of a host of politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen are on the ECL because under the instructions of the Supreme Court, they require to clear their names through an anti-corruption process. Their cases existed prior to Oct 5, 2007, when NAB courts had been trying them for charges of corruption, kickbacks, commissions and the alleged misuse of authority.

Asif Ali Zardari Leads the Herd

The name of President Asif Ali Zardari has not been put on the ECL because NAB’s legal experts are studying two questions: (i) presidential immunity and (ii) whether immunity would cover cases being tried in foreign courts. However some of the big shots that are included in the list are as follows:

Rehman Malik
Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar
Babar Ghauri
Salman Faruqui
Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao
Nawab Yousuf Talpur
Wasim Akhtar
Dr Imran Farooq
Rana Nazir Khan
Saeed Mehdi
Nawab Yousuf Talpur
Nusrat Bhutto
Jehangir Badr
Ahmad Mukhtar
Malik Mushtaq Ahmed Awan
Rana Nazir Ahmed
Mian M Rashid
Former MPA Tariq Anis, assets beyond means
Former MPA Mian Tariq Mehmud Dina, assets beyond means
Former minister Agha Sirajuddin and others, misuse of authority
Former chief minister and former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, misuse of authority, illegal allotment of plots and assets case
Former minister Ghaniur Rehman, assets beyond means
Former senator Haji Gul Sher, misuse of authority and acquisition of land
Former minister Habibullah Khan Kundi, misuse of authority and acquisition of land
Former MNA Mir Baz Muhammad Khan Khethran, misappropriation of the government funds allocated for the People’s Works Programme
Ex- minister Anwar Saifullah Khan, misuse of authority in allocation of LPG and illegal appointments
Ex-minister Sardar Mansoor Leghari, corruption in the Utility Stores Corporation
Ex-mayor Sargodha Abdul Hameed, assets beyond means
Ex-chairman Lahore District Council Shaukat Ali
Ex-MNA Haji Kabir and ex-chairman District Council, Lahore, Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali in the Dist Council fraud case