ISLAMABAD – Former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khanhas hit out at the Interior Ministry over the issue of Sharif family namenot put on the Exit Control List.

He said that non-inclusion of Sharif family’s name in Exit Control List(ECL) means that the decision has been made somewhere else and not taken bythe interior ministry’s committee.

His statement came during the National Assembly session when PakistanPeoples Party (PPP) member Syed Naveed Qamar questioned that in some casesthe name of suspects are immediately included in ECL, but Nawaz Sharif andhis children names have not been placed in the list despite recommendationof NATIONAL Accountability Bureau (NAB).

“Why is there a double standard pertaining to placing names in ECL?” heasked

Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Minister of State for Interior TalalChaudhary were not in the house to answer the questions of opposition.

When no minister came forward to answer the question, Chaudhry Nisarabruptly stood up and said, “Before 2013, names in ECL were placed throughrecommendation. If a couple had indulged into a fight, one of them wasincluded in ECL.”

“In my tenure, I changed the policy of ECL and eliminated the role ofminister and secretary in this regard. Now, a committee of interiorministry decides whether a person’s name should be placed on ECL or not,”he explained.

Nisar told that the committee used to take decision on merit in his tenurewhereas the suggestion of NAB was taken seriously.

“If NAB’s recommendation has been ignored in this case it means that thedecision has not been taken by the committee but somewhere else,” hesuggested.