SC dismisses plea to remove Rao Anwaar’s name from ECL

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – The Supreme Court of Pakistan has dismissed a plea to remove the name of Malir former SSP Rao Anwaar from the exit control list.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, while hearing the case, ordered to confiscate the passport of Rao Anwaar.

He remarked that Rao Anwaar had killed a young man and how he was acquitted.

His counsel told court: "Rao Anwaar was not acquitted; he is out on bail. "His family lives abroad. He wants to meet them and also wants to perform Umrah with his family."

The CJP ordered that Rao Anwaar would remain in Pakistan till the completion of the trial.

Naqeebullah Murder Case

Naqeebullah Mehsud was among four people killed in an encounter on January 13. While Anwar had claimed that all four of the men killed, allegedly on his orders, belonged to the terrorist outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), social media had erupted in protest against Mehsud's killing after it was found that he was an aspiring model.

The tainted police officer had gone into hiding soon after demands for his arrest in the Naqeebullah murder case had gained traction. A police JIT had then found the encounter was staged.

Anwaar had then resurfaced in a dramatic manner at the Supreme Court, after repeated pleas from the chief justice, from where he was subsequently arrested.

Soon after his arrest, his house in Malir Cantonment was declared a sub-jail. He had later moved an application for provision of better class facilities in the sub-jail. The court had accepted Anwar's application for better facilities, including an exemption from being handcuffed.

In July 2018, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) had ruled that Anwaar was not present at the time Naqeebullah and three others were extra-judicially killed in an alleged ‘staged’ encounter. A week later, the ATC had granted bail to Anwaar.