Islamabad High Court on Tuesday reserved judgment on a petition filed against removal of Zulfikar Bukhari's name from the Exit Control List (ECL) and usage of Noor Khan Airbase for facilitating the departure of a private person through a private plane.
A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Aamer Farooq heard the petition wherein the court was requested to initiate proceedings against the officials of the defense and interior ministries for allowing Bukhari to depart from Noor Khan Airbase.
During the proceeding, Justice Amir Farooq questioned what the law regarding placing of a name on 'black list' is. The application was about placing name on ECL, but the name was placed on Black List. He inquired if the name was on Black List then how it was removed on one phone call.
Justice Farooq questioned how the dual national could be black listed. He further inquired what the number of passport was which was cancelled.
The deputy attorney general informed the court that Zulfikar's computerized national identity card (CNIC) was canceled and not the passport.
The judge questioned how a person could be blacklisted on the basis of CNIC and what its legal value is. The DAG told that Ministry of Interior has its own SOP, which was approved on the recommendation of the Ministry of Law.
Justice Farooq remarked that the Ministry of Interior violated its own law.
Colonel Inam-ur Rahim, the counsel for petitioner, informed that Zulfikar's name was removed from the Black List on his (Bukhari's) application.
The counsel of Zulfikar requested that his client's name be removed from ECL so that he could join his family in London.
Syed Zulfikar Bukhari, a British national, has filed a petition in the IHC praying to remove his name from the list. He was briefly stopped from boarding a special flight on a private plane bound for Saudi Arabia from Noor Khan Airbase to perform Umrah with Imran Khan on June 11, but later he was permitted to travel.
According to the petition, Bukhari is facing an inquiry and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has issued multiple notices to him since February this year. However, Bukhari did not join the inquiry, and stated upon receiving a third notice that since he is a British national, NAB lacks the jurisdiction to investigate him.
Similarly, another petition was moved by a citizen Muhammad Kausar through his counsel Inamul Rahiem Advocate and it cited federation of Pakistan through secretary Ministry of Defense, secretary Ministry of Interior and director general Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) as respondents.
The petitioner stated that on 11-6-2018, Zulfikar Hussain Bukhari, commonly known as Zulfi Bukhari, accompanied the PTI Chairman Imran Khan on his way to Saudi Arabia while Bukhari's name was on ECL. Therefore, he was stopped by immigration authorities at Noor Khan Airbase.
He added that the name of Zulfikar was placed on the ECL along with other owners of offshore companies in line with the orders of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in connection with its probe into the Panama Papers scandal and the said action of placing the name of Bukhari on ECL by NAB was on the directions of the Supreme Court to take action against all those who own offshore firms.
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