Government releases list of 172 suspects placed on ECL

ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Friday released a list of 172 suspects whose names have been placed on the Exit Control List (ECL).

Top Pakistan Peoples Party leaders including party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur are among those placed on the no-fly list.

Sindh chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and former chief minister Qaim Ali Shah are also included in the list. 

Provincial ministers Imtiaz Shaikh and Mukesh Chawla and former home minister Sohail Anwar Siyal are among those barred from flying abroad.

Ten members of the Omni Group, including chairman Anwar Majeed and his sons Abdul Ghani Majeed, Nimr Majeed are also on the list.

Tahir Mehmood, acting chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, and former Karachi Stock Exchange chairman Hussain Lawai, who is currently incarcerated in connection to the money laundering scam, are also on the list of suspects barred from leaving the country.

The list includes presidents of local banks Ahsan Raza Durrani, Ahsan Tariq, Syed Ali Raza, and Bilal Sheikh, an old confidant of former president Asif Ali Zardari.

Former Sindh Building Control Authority chairman Manzoor Qadir has also been placed on the ECL.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry in a press briefing on Thursday had announced the government's decision to put 172 individuals on the ECL, in view of a report submitted by a joint investigation team in the Supreme Court in the long-running money laundering case. 

The JIT, in its report, had held the Zardari and Omni groups responsible in the mega money laundering and fake bank accounts case.