Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif moved a contempt of court petition in the Lahore High Court on Monday, after he was stopped from going abroad despite the court orders.
Shehbaz was barred from boarding a Doha bound flight at Lahore airport on May 8 by the immigration officials.
The immigration staff informed him that his name was still on a no-fly list called the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL). On Monday, the government also put his name on the Exit Control List (ECL), after it was removed by a court order in 2019.
Shehbaz submitted that the LHC order was announced on May 7 in front of the deputy attorney general and two Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials.
He argued that the entire nation was aware of the court order as it was discussed on social and electronic media besides newspapers. It was a lame excuse that the system had not been updated “because a comprehensive mechanism of updating the Integrated Border Management System and placing or removal of names in the stop-lists round the clock, is in vogue,” he added.
His counsel submitted 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 Honourable Court through contumacious and contemptuous conduct by way of resorting to false and frivolous pretexts for which a separate contempt petition is being filed.”
He requested the court to order immediate implementation of the May 7 verdict “in the interest of justice.”
