The Daily DAWN, November 15, 1998

KARACHI: Nasreen barred from going to S. Africa
By Our Reporter

KARACHI, Nov 14: Immigration authorities on Saturday did not allow Senator Nasreen Jaleel, deputy convener of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, to board a Dubai-bound flight en route to South Africa, saying that her name was on the Exit Control List (ECL).

Addressing a hurriedly called press conference at Karachi Press Club, the senator, who is chairman of the Senate's standing committee on human rights, said her "detention" was not only her own insult but of the entire Senate and declared that she would move a privilege motion in the upper house.

She said that only a few days back interior minister Chaudhri Shujat Hussain had said that names of the MQM parliamentarians were not on the ECL, yet the immigration authorities at the Karachi airport prevented her from going to attend a conference in South Africa.

The immigration wing of the FIA at the Jinnah International Airport gave no details about the off-loading of the MQM senator. After repeated calls to the airport, it was learnt that the MQM leader was prevented from proceeding abroad on the basis of the ECL.

SSP-Malir Murtaza Jagirani said the immigration had stopped the senator because her name was on the ECL. He said her passport had been stamped with the information that her name was on the ECL