ISLAMABAD: In a significant development, the federal government removed the names of Murad Saeed and other leaders from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party who were previously part of the cabinet, from the Exit Control List (ECL), said sources.

According to sources, the federal cabinet approved the removal of their names from the ECL based on recommendations from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and issued notifications to relevant authorities regarding this decision.

Those whose names were removed from the ECL include Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, Ghulam Sarwar, Parvez Khattak, Shafqat Mahmood, Ijaz Shah, Ali Zaidi, Khusro Bakhtiar, Azam Swati, Asad Umar, Omar Ayub, Mehboob Sultan, Fawad Chaudhry, Farog Naseem, and Shireen Mazari. However, the names of PTI founder Imran Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi, Farah Gogi, and Zulfi Bukhari were not removed from the list.

The Exit Control List (ECL) is a legal mechanism used to restrict individuals’ movement and prevent them from traveling abroad.

The PTI leaders’ names were added to the ECL at the request of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in connection with a case related to the Al Qadir University Trust, which reportedly resulted in a loss of 190 million pounds to the national treasury.

According to allegations, the former prime minister and others accused allegedly misappropriated Rs50 billion — equivalent to 190 million pounds at the time — which was provided by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the government.

The PTI chief established the Trust for the Al-Qadir University Project on December 26, 2019.