Dr Asim approaches SHC for removal of name from ECL

PPP leader Asim Hussain on Wednesday petitioned the Sindh High Court for removal of his name from the Exit Control List in order to allow for his travel abroad for medical treatment.

Hussain’s petition said a medical board had recommended that he undergo spinal surgery abroad. The petition will be taken up by the court in a few day’s time, Hussain’s counsel said.

The close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari was released from a sub-jail set up for him at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on March 31, after spending a little over 19 months in detention.

He was granted bail in two corruption references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for allegedly causing huge losses to the national exchequer through corrupt practices.

Dr Hussain, who was serving as chairman of the Sindh Higher Education Commission, was picked up by Rangers personnel on Aug 26, 2015 for his alleged involvement in offences falling within the ambit of Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

He remained in Rangers’ preventive detention for 90 days before being handed over to police in a case registered against him and others for allegedly treating and harbouring suspected terrorists, political militants and gangsters at his hospital as asked by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader and now Karachi mayor Waseem Akhtar, lawmaker Rauf Siddiqui, Saleem Shehzad; Pak Sarzameen Party president Anis Kaimkhani; PPP’s Abdul Qadir Patel, and Pasban Pakistan’s Usman Moazzam.

Later, NAB obtained his custody for interrogation and investigation into his alleged involvement in corruption. One of the two corruption cases pertained to causing loss of Rs462.5 billion by allegedly misusing his powers, while the other related to award of processing gas from five fields in lower Sindh without conducting an open auction, incurring a huge loss of Rs17.34bn to the national exchequer.

Source: Dawn