Passport blacklisting: Former AGP goes to court

Akhtar Buland Rana’s dual nationality, misconduct charges led to the govt’s move

ISLAMABAD: Former auditor-general of Pakistan Akhtar Buland Rana has challenged the government’s decision to blacklist him from getting passports. The government’s move came after allegations that Rana had concealed his Canadian nationality while obtaining a Pakistani passport.

With a plea based on his constitutional right to free movement, the former AGP through his counsel Taimoor Aslam Khan challenged the decision before the Islamabad High Court on Thursday.



He has made the government through the directorate general and an immigration and passports assistant director respondents in the case.

In the petition, Rana states that the respondents issued a letter on May 26, 2015 whereby the petitioner has been blacklisted from eligibility for future passport facilities on the allegation of obtaining a Pakistani passport while concealing his Canadian nationality.

The federal government sacked AGP Rana in May 2015 after the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) found him guilty of misconduct.

It was the first time in the history of Pakistan that a complaint was filed in the SJC to seek the disqualification of an AGP, while it was the second time that the council gave its opinion to the president on any reference filed under Article 209 of the Constitution. The council has previously offered a decision on only one such reference — the ouster of a judge in 1971.

On the basis of the allegations levelled in the reference filed before the SJC, Khan said, the respondents have initiated an inquiry against Rana even though he had already been punished and “removed from service on account of misconduct”.



Khan said that the petitioner had challenged the decision before the IHC in 2015 and the case is still pending adjudication. During the pendency, he said, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) lodged a case against Rana for concealing his Canadian nationality and that he is currently on bail in the case.

The FIA has submitted a charge sheet before a court, but the trial has yet to commence.

Referring to the impugned letter, the counsel said that the respondents’ action of blacklisting the passport is an illegal act as no notice of any nature was issued to the petitioner before the decision was taken.

While countering the allegations, Khan said that “allegations regarding concealment fall flat on its face as the FIA earlier also inquired into this matter and subsequently closed the enquiry by holding that no irregularity was involved.”

He said that the report further states that the petitioner held a CNIC and was later issued a NICOP card, adding that it further discloses his possession of a Canadian passport and the number of the passport as proof that the existence of the document was not concealed.

The petitioner claims that the report submitted before the President of Pakistan states that Rana was a dual national and was holding a Canadian passport. “It is not against the law,” he stated in the petition.

Khan said that blacklisting the petitioner has no sanctity in law as the superior judiciary has time and again protected and affirmed that the right to movement is a fundamental, constitutional right of a citizen.

He has prayed the court to set aside the letter blacklisting the petitioner from availing passport facilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2016.