Cabinet sends 172 ECL names for panel review

Fawad Chaudhry says no NRO with opposition; ministers increase IHC judges' strength to 9

 ISLAMABAD  : In light of the observations of the Supreme Court, the federal cabinet on Wednesday discussed the issue of the inclusion of 172 names in the Exit Control List (ECL) and decided to refer the matter to a review committee.

Briefing journalists about the meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said any decision of including or excluding names in the ECL would be taken in accordance with the recommendations of the review committee.

The cabinet met ahead of Prime Minister Khan's Turkey visit. It was called after the Supreme Court's direction for a review of the government decision to place names of 172 people, including Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto and Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari in the no-fly list.

The Supreme Court took strong exception to putting the individuals' names – particularly that of Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah and other politicians – in the ECL on the basis of a report of the joint investigation team over the fake bank accounts case.

The cabinet decided against immediately removing any names from the ECL. "The cabinet took stock of the issue of inclusion of 172 people in the ECL in light of the Supreme Court's observations and decided to refer it to the ECL Review Committee, working under the interior ministry," Chaudhry told reporters.



"The decision to include or exclude the names will be taken according to the recommendations of the committee, which would give a briefing to the cabinet next week," he added. About inclusion of the names in the ECL, Chaudhry said the cabinet took the decision on the joint request of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and the JIT.

"It is a bitter reality that in the past persons, who could have proved helpful in investigations, escaped from the country in the prime minister's aeroplane," he said in response to a question, adding that the government would not agree to an NRO [Musharraf-era amnesty law] with the opposition.

Chaudhry said that the cabinet also decided to expedite the privatisation of five units, including Haveli Bahadur Shah, Lakhra Coal Mine, Services Hotel Lahore, divestment of the government shares in the petroleum companies and the K-Electric.

The cabinet also accorded approval to three additional posts of judges in Islamabad High Court. It will increase the number of judges from six to nine, in addition to the chief justice.

The cabinet abolished the additional customs duty on offshore exploration companies in order to create a more favourable environment for foreign investment. "The government wanted to levy tax on the income of foreign companies, and not on their investment," Chaudhry said.



The cabinet also approved Rs2.8 billion for the construction of FC Headquarters in South and North zones of Balochistan. The minister said that an amount of 123 million euro as loan has been approved for rapid bus transport in Peshawar.

The cabinet formed a "land bank committee" headed by Defense Minister Pervez Khattak. "The committee will identify 150 prime properties for use in various public sector projects," Chaudhry said, adding that so far 9,442 kanals of unused land had been identified at the federal level, 56,000 kanals in Punjab and 5,258 kanals in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

For Karachi, the minister said, a high powered committee headed by Sindh Governor Imran Ismail had been constituted to utilise federal funds for the city. "The federal government could not hand over development funds to the provincial government, which, otherwise, would be transferred abroad like Sindh's Rs2,000 billion uplift funds," he added.

He said that a poverty alleviation coordination council has been established that would work under Dr Sania Nishtar. It was tasked with coordinating the activities of various institutions at the federal and the provincial levels for poverty alleviation.

The minister said export duty on jaggery has been brought down to 2.5% to enhance local production and export of the commodity. He added the cabinet asked the provinces to encourage jaggery production as its export to Afghanistan had picked up.

The cabinet directed the statistics division to monitor the prices of daily-use items regularly. The minister said that the division would collect price data from 76 markets and 40 cities and then submit its report to the federal cabinet on a weekly basis.

Responding to another question about opposition's claims of political victimisation, the minister said that the government had nothing to do with the accountability process. "NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal was not appointed by the PTI government," he said.

He claimed that the opposition was trying to hamper the National Assembly from doing its business since day one. He was also averse to the appointment of Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee because of corruption cases against him.