CJP orders Rao Anwar to stay in Pakistan till trial is over

The Supreme Court (SC) rejected on Thursday the former Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rao Anwar's request to remove his name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

A three-member bench headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar took up the case regarding Anwar's plea. The former SSP had requested the court to remove his name from the ECL as he wanted to travel abroad to meet his children and also perform Umrah.

The CJP wondered how Anwar was out of jail and who had acquitted him. He was informed that the former SSP was released on bail, local media reported. The chief justice remarked that Anwar probably wanted to go abroad to deposit the wealth he looted from the country.

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The chief justice added that by now Anwar's passport should even be confiscated. He said that Anwar's family should be called to Pakistan as Anwar will stay in the country till the trial was over.

Anwar is facing a trial since last year in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case. The 27-year-old native of Waziristan was killed, along with three other suspected terrorists, last year on January 13 in an alleged encounter with a police team headed by Anwar. However, Naqeebullah’s family had claimed that the deceased was innocent and was killed in a ‘fake’ encounter.

A Joint Investigation Team, formed to probe into Mehsud's killing, had held Anwar responsible for the murder. In its findings, the JIT wrote that Anwar was present at the encounter site.