ISLAMABAD  -  The sub-committee of the federal cabinet on Thurs­day recommended to place names of 17 individ­uals including Farhat Shehzadi alias Farah Gogi, a close friend of former first day Bushra Bibi, and her husband Ahsan Jameel Gujjar on the Exit Control List (ECL). The sub-committee recommended plac­ing the names of the couple on no-fly list on the re­quest of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the official sources privy to the development in­formed The Nation. The federal cabinet would take a final decision on the recommendation.

Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti and Caretaker Minister for Communications and Rail­ways Shahid Ashraf Tarar participated in the meeting that was also attended by officials of the ministries of interior, and law besides other departments. Farah Gogi and her spouse Gujjar are facing investigations by the bureau on charges of corruption and money laundering. The couple was considered very influen­tial under the then Punjab government of Sardar Us­man Buzdar. Both had already fled abroad and have not returned to the country to face the probe despite being repeatedly summoned by the NAB.

According to an announcement of the Ministry of Interior, the sub-committee formed by the cabinet to review cases of ECL also recommended exclud­ing the names of five individuals from the no-fly list. The meeting also approved to exclude names of all individuals from the ECL who were wanted by the departments concerned in seven different cases, the ministry said without naming anyone.