Illegal restrictions: Senators oppose travel blacklist

Upper House adopts panel report regarding legal value of list

ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Monday adopted a report of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice regarding procedure for putting names in a 'blacklist' of persons forbidden from travelling abroad and its legal value.

Senators expressed concerns that the list existed without any legal sanction.

Committee Chairman Javed Abbasi tabled the motion for the consideration of the report, saying because of the list some people were stopped at airports despite having valid passports. Abbasi told the house that the list had no legal value.

The list – which existed side by side the official Exit Control List (ECL) — was being misused and it was in practice since 1957, Abbasi said, adding misuse of the list was reportedly done at Karachi and Peshawar airports.

He stressed that the ECL could be used to stop persons from travelling abroad.

Senator Sherry Rehman told the House that the list was being used to stop people from travelling in denial of their fundamental rights.



Senator Sikander Mandhro said the list was against the legal and fundamental rights of people. He said the House should be informed about the departments that put hurdle in the way of people going abroad.

Taking part in the debate, Senator Raza Rabbani said the government had two months to implement the recommendations of the upper house.

He said the interior ministry, immigration and passport departments and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have failed to tell the committee about the source of the blacklist.

"The list is ultra vires of the Constitution and it is violation of Article 15 of the Constitution. It is stated in the Constitution that any law contradicting the fundamental rights was ultra vires," he noted. "The issue should not be taken lightly."

He also said that the passport manual had no legal sanction because it was not made according to the Passport Act. The passport manual, he added, was amended in 1962 but there was no clause that sanctioned a blacklist.

According Rabbani, the standing committee was surprised to know that the interior ministry, FIA and passport and immigration offices were not taking responsibility for the creation of the blacklist.

"The committee asked the officials how a person who was accused of violation of Article 6 and subversion of the Constitution got away from the country but they did not have any answer," he said.



"Even labourers who were bound to reach their duties in foreign countries were stopped with this blacklist and money was allegedly extorted from them."

Education and Professional Training Minister Shafqat Mehmood commented that why an impression was being given that the blacklist was maintained for the last three months only.

He stressed that the FIA director general should be called to determine why such a list was needed.

Senator Mir Kabir said that a committee should be formed to further look into the matter. Senator Sarfraz Bugti referred to war against terrorism and stressed that "the list was provided by intelligence agencies and it should be realised that security institutions were rendering sacrifices every single day".

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Muhammad Khan said that the parliament had the right to protect rights of the citizens. He said that the Interior Ministry could properly respond on the matter, adding that the minister would be "in the house in the next sitting to shed light on the situation".

He asked under which law Aimal Kansi, Afia Siddiqui and Ramzi Yousaf were handed over to other countries. "There ought to be a way to further strengthen hands of security forces," he continued.

Standing Committee on Communications Chairman Hidayatullah presented the report on Sukkur-Multan (M-5) Motorway.

The House deferred debate on a calling attention notice of Senator Sherry Rehman on missing of revenue collection target of Rs175 billion by the Federal Board of Revenue which was causing a slowdown in the economy.