Members of opposition parties in the Senate on Monday criticised the government for maintaining, what they called, a 'blacklist' on airports to restrict foreign travel of the citizens and urged the government to abolish it forthwith.
Debate on the issue started in the Upper House of the Parliament after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Senator Javed Abbasi presented a report of the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice regarding procedure for putting names in the blacklist. "Practice of putting the names on the blacklist should be stopped forthwith and all such existing lists be abolished," the report said.
The standing committee report also urged the government to present a report on it in the House within 10 days. "The Ministry of Interior should submit a compliance report regarding abolition of blacklist before the Senate within a period of 10 days," it said.
Speaking on the issue, Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Sherry Rehman said that Pakistan is becoming a police state where sudden and unlawful travel restrictions crop up overnight at airports. "Freedom of movement is a fundamental right and so-called blacklist is a violation of the Article 15 of the Constitution," she said, adding that elected representatives and common citizens are being stopped from traveling abroad for their names being in the blacklist.
PPP Senator Raza Rabbani said that the issue of the blacklist was discussed in detail in the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights, and Law and Justice but the government departments were unable to cite any law to back this list. "This list has no backing of any law whatsoever," he said, adding that the list is in violation of the Constitution. Rabbani urged the chairman Senate to call in minister for interior to explain his position on the blacklist.
PML-N Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed said that this list has been operational for the last so many years, so no specific government is responsible for it. "It is a collective responsibility and the matter needs to be fixed," he said. He suggested that the House should constitute a special committee to look into the issue, while urging the government ministers to take up the issue in the meeting of federal cabinet as well.
Responding to all these points, Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood said that his government believes in the rule of law and it would never support any action that would be against the law and the Constitution. He, however, said that the standing committee should have also investigated to determine as when this list started functioning. The minister said that law regarding the Exit Control List is in force; therefore, there is no reason for any arbitrary restriction on the foreign travel of anybody.
Senator Sarfraz Bugti of Balochistan Awami Party said that the Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence sent the lists to the airport authorities to stop persons involved in terrorism and white-collar crime from traveling abroad. He said that Pakistan was fighting a war against terror and that's why special measures were initiated to curb it. He urged the House to constitute a committee to address the issue by taking input of the state agencies.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan assured the House that the Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi will brief the House on the issue in detail.
Taking part in the budget debate, Senator Aurangzeb Khan criticised the government for getting hefty loans, saying that this is not how the countries progress. He urged the government to focus on revenue collection and tax reforms to stabilise the economy. He also urged the government to allocate at least three percent of the NFC for development of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Senator Gul Bashra of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party said the PTI government has presented second supplementary budget in the current financial year despite the fact that there is no emergency like flash floods or earthquake in the country. She said that the government has failed to fulfill its election promises as inflation has skyrocketed in the country in the last five months.
Senator Nuzhat Sadiq of PML-N said that rupee has depreciated against dollar in the last five months while work on all development projects has been stopped. She said that prices of utilities like gas and electricity have been massively increased without any reason.
PTI Senator Muhammad Ayub said that the government has introduced two cogent steps in the economic reforms package that would revolutionize the economy. These steps included issuance of promissory notes to exporters for refund of their Rs 200 billion Withholding Tax and reduction in taxes on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that would help create job opportunities for the youth.
PTI Senator Shahzad Waseem said that the government's reforms package was welcomed by all including stock brokers, traders and members of industries. He said that numerous incentives have been introduced in the package for promotion of industry and agriculture that would help strengthen the economy and create job opportunities.