Minister for Interior Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan has that any new name on the Exit Control List (ECL) will be placed only on the recommendations of Supreme Court and High Courts.
Addressing a news conference here on Sunday, the Interior Minister said that wanted to share details of reforms or institutionalisation of ECL, which had been grossly misused for political victimisation in the past. "We are going to make it difficult to put names on the ECL," he said, adding that people would be included on the recommendations of Supreme Court, High Courts as well as on the recommendations of Defence and sensitive agencies. He said that investigation agencies, Federal Investigation Agencies (FIA) National Accountably Bureau (NAB) would also recommend people to be placed on the ECL but their recommendations would be reviewed by a committee. The Minister said that anybody placed on the ECL would have the right of review and investigation agencies would be given one month's time to complete their investigation and three years for taking it to logical conclusion.
Replying to questions, he said he would be briefing the Cabinet on the National Action Plan (NAP) today (Monday) and requested media to carefully report on security-related matters. He said a meeting would be held with the organisers of seminaries in the first week of September, which would be chaired by the Prime Minister. Nisar said that Punjab Interior Minister Shuja Khanzada's killing was a blind murder and there was no breakthrough in the case though we have a fair idea as to who was behind his murder. Interior Minister maintained that the kidnapped Chinese citizen had been recovered by law enforcement agencies and would be handed over to the Chinese Embassy. He said that PTI chief has been making false statements on a daily basis and that he (Imran) had no shame for making such frivolous allegations. "Why should the Chairman NADRA feel ashamed? He's only spoken the truth," Nisar said in response to a question.
Interior Minister said that people would be shocked to learn that two different ECL were generated: one by Ministry of Interior and other by Directorate of Passports. He said the names of the people were included in the ECL on family disputes and political victimisation on the recommendations of Ministers and Prime Ministers in the past. He said that the names of 52,000 people on the black list are being removed and ECL authority would henceforth rest with Ministry of Interior and Directorate of Passports would have nothing to do with it. He further stated that Interior Ministry is maintaining a list of 8000 people and the concerned departments have already been issued notices to explain the reasons for people being on ECL for so long.
He added that 8000 people are on ECL of Ministry of Interior while 52,000 people are blacklisted by the ECL of Directorate of Passports and the government has introduced a clear policy after working of one year to bring about reforms in the ECL as "it is not a joke to put the name of anybody or everybody on the ECL which would have 1550 deportees and 4805 double passports holders on the list."
The government would remove thousands of people from the ECL under the new policy that would reduce the total number of people on the ECL to 3000 from 12,000 in a month.
The new policy would be in place in a month that would replace the blacklist by Passports Control List (PCL). Nisar said that not a single person was put on the ECL during the last two years of his ongoing tenure despite pressure. He said the ECL was being misused in the past for victimisation. He said that more than around 80,000 ID cards have been cancelled and 40,000 fake cards were issued after 2013. The government would take action against the people who have issued fake ID cards.