A particular customs court docket in Rawalpindi on Saturday issued non-bailable arrest warrants in opposition to mannequin Ayyan Ali, who has been absconding from trial in a foreign money smuggling case after fleeing overseas beneath false pretenses.
The court docket ordered customized officers to arrest the accused and current her in court docket by Oct 22.
Customs prosecutor Amin Feroz famous that Ayyan Ali had not turned up in court docket since December 8, 2015.
In the course of the listening to on Saturday, presided over by Customs Court docket Choose Arshad Hussain Bhutta, the accused mannequin’s lawyer, Sardar Latif Khosa, was not current in court docket. As an alternative, a junior lawyer, Syed Iqbal Hussain, was despatched in his stead.
The junior lawyer stated that Ayyan is unwell due to which she couldn’t be current in court docket, and requested that she be granted short-term depart of absence. Nonetheless, the court docket was incensed by the persevering with excuses.
The court docket requested the lawyer whether or not he had any new medical certificates to indicate for his shopper, warning that exemptions on attendance couldn’t be granted at each listening to to Ayyan on the premise of outdated medical stories.
The customs prosecutor opposed giving the mannequin any exemptions on showing earlier than the court docket and famous that new excuses are made relating to her presence in each listening to.
Feroz requested that the court docket problem non-bailable arrest warrants for the suspect as an alternative.
The customs prosecutor had additionally requested the court docket to problem non-bailable arrest warrants for the mannequin in September, however the court docket had determined to problem bailable arrest warrants.
This time, the court docket accepted the customs prosecutor’s request and ordered the issuance of warrants in opposition to Ali.
Ayyan had been arrested by the Airport Safety Drive in March 2015 from Rawalpindi’s outdated Benazir Worldwide Airport. She was carrying $506,800 in foreign money that she was allegedly making an attempt to smuggle to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
She was granted bail in July 2016 after spending round 4 months in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail and after her judicial remand was prolonged not less than 16 instances.