65,000 removed from no-fly lists, says Nisar

Nisar said a name will only be put on the ECL if recommended by defence institutions, intelligence agencies, or the SC

ISLAMABAD:

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan revealed on Wednesday that the government has removed 65,000 more names from the no-fly lists.

Giving details of the shakedown, Nisar told reporters in Islamabad that the exit control list (ECL) had been purged of a further 4,987 entries and it now only contained names which had been on the list for less than three years, or those who were linked to anti-state activities, terrorism, or banned outfits. Further, the list contained names of those individuals who were included in the fourth schedule or had been debarred by the superior courts.

Read: Nisar announces removal of 5,000 names from ECL in 'major' overhaul

“The ECL is not a joke. Unfortunately, people were being barred from flying abroad over petty domestic issues,” Nisar said, adding that a separate policy would be formulated for foreigners.

He added that as many as 59,604 names had been removed from the black list.

Of these, 22,491 names had been deleted from the system, 9,660 had been moved to the passport control list (PCL) and 27,452 names moved to the visa control list (VCL).

As per the new system, Nisar said a name will only be put on the ECL if recommended by defence institutions, intelligence agencies, or the superior courts. Members of proscribed organisations, drug traffickers, and enemy spies will be debarred from international travel.

NADRA corruption

The interior minister said that 138 employees of the National Database Regulatory Authority (NADRA) had been sacked for corruption and issuing fake identity cards.

He added that reforms had yielded Rs5 billion in profit for NADRA, improving over the Rs1.2 billion loss it had suffered under the previous government.

Passport system reforms

Nisar also detailed reforms in the passport system, announcing SMS and home delivery services in addition to 73 new offices across the country.

Read: Framework review: Nisar unveils plans to thin out exit control list

He said the home delivery system will be introduced in Rawalpindi and Islamabad from October, before expanding it to other major urban centres over the next six months. The Machine Readable Passport (MRP) facility was also being extended to 91 Pakistani missions abroad.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2015.