KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari left for Dubai on Friday morning but surprisingly also took Interior Minister Rehman Malik with him, who, until recently, was said to be on the ECL. It is not yet officially known if his name has been removed from the list.

Officially, it was claimed that the purpose of President Zardariís visit to Dubai was to meet his children there. However, sources said Bilawal and Bakhtawar had already reached Pakistan. Bilawal has come from London while Bakhtawar arrived from Dubai. Only Assefa is in Dubai and insiders claim that President Zardari will return on Sunday, along with his younger daughter.

Authorities claimed that it was a scheduled visit of President Zardari but it was purely private in nature and Rehman Malik joined the president at the last minute. It seems as if there is a serious meeting between the two of them urgently called by President Zardari.

After the Supreme Court verdict on the NRO, this is the first foreign visit of the president and Interior Minister Rehman Malik. The names of all those people who had taken advantage of the NRO were included in the Exit Control List (ECL) on the instruction of the superior judiciary.

The authorities stopped Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar after the Supreme Court verdict and President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani took a serious notice of this step and suspended the interior secretary and some other officials.

Zardari is protected by virtue of his official position and his name was not included in the ECL. Officials confirmed that President Zardari would return on Sunday directly to Larkana, where he will address a public meeting on the second death anniversary of late Benazir Bhutto. There will be no big gathering in Larkana this year because of Muharram and the party has decided that the death anniversary will be observed in every district. (News sourced from site of PakTribune)