Travel restrictions imposed for May 9 riots bar Zartaj Gul from Hajj pilgrimage

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Zartaj Gul has approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC), requesting to remove her name from the Exit Control List (ECL) as she wants to perform Hajj. 

The former federal minister was booked in several cases, including arsenal and vandalism on May 9, 2023. 

A petition sought an immediate order from IHC stating that Gul was neither an absconder nor a fugitive in any case, and she also was granted bail by the court. 

It added that she wants to perform Hajj, but "legal restrictions are being used to forestalling her".

According to her counsel, the pleader’s name was added to the Exit Control List (ECL) and Provincial National Identification List (PNIL) without any legal reason.

The counsel said that they had filed a petition on March 13 for the removal of his client’s name from PNIL but the petition was not put up for hearing.

However, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri heard the plea, and issued a written verdict on the petition, seeking a response from the interior secretary over the matter.

Moreover, it has directed the interior secretary to deploy a person with strong knowledge of the law to assist the court in the matter and appear before the court with the facts of the case.