Shehbaz Sharif files contempt of court petition in LHC

• Shehbaz Sharif approaches LHC after he was stopped from flying abroad.
• The PML-N president maintains that the immigration officials violated court orders.
• He was offloaded from a Doha-bound flight on May 8.

LAHORE: President of the Pakistan Muslim League-N Shehbaz Sharif submitted a contempt of court petition in the Lahore High Court on Monday, after he was prevented from leaving the country despite court orders.

On May 8, Sharif, who is also the leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, was to board a flight to Qatar when he was stopped by immigration officials at the Lahore airport.

Sharif was told his name was still on a no-fly list titled, the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL). On Monday, the government also added his name to the Exit Control List (ECL), after it was removed by a court order in 2019.

In his petition, Sharif states that the LHC order which allowed him to leave the country one-time was announced on May 7 in front of the deputy attorney general and two Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials.

The above order had become a matter of public knowledge, Sharif argues, as various representatives and federal ministers had discussed its contents on social media and during talk shows.

The petition adds that the “excuse for not permitting the complainant to proceed abroad was lame and false because a comprehensive mechanism of updating the Integrated Border Management System and placing or removal of names in the stop-lists 24/7 round the clock, is in vogue.”

Sharif’s counsel adds that the “instant case is a classic example of high handedness, utter disregard of rule of law, blatant defiance and deliberate disobedience, defeating and frustrating an order of this Hon'ble Court through contumacious and contemptuous conduct by way of resorting to false and frivolous pretexts for which a separate contempt petition is being filed.”

Sharif’s counsel states that the order dated May 7 be implemented immediately “in the interest of justice.”

'Government's only aim is to get my name on the ECL'

Later in the day, speaking to media in Islamabad, the Opposition leader said today the National Assembly would deliberate over the Palestinian issue.

"They have no other job [expect to put other's name on] ECL .... They do not care about the situation arising due to coronavirus," the PML-N president said.

"The government's only aim is to get my name on the ECL."