Gilani barred from travelling abroad

Former PM told by FIA at Lahore airport his name appeared in ‘black list’

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani was barred from leaving the country on Wednesday because his name was placed in the ‘black list’ of persons who cannot travel abroad, his family said.

Gialni’s daughter, Fiza Batool Gilani, said on the microblogging website, Twitter, her father had been travelling to Seoul, South Korea to attend the World Summit there, when he was stopped by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) at the Lahore airport.

Reportedly Gilani was accompanied by former National Assembly deputy speaker Faisal Kareem Kundi. Sources said that Gilani, who is a senior leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was stopped by FIA officials at the immigration counter.

The FIA officials told the former prime minister that he could not leave the country, because an investigation was ongoing against him in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases and that his name had been placed on the blacklist.

In his response, Gilani said that he could never think about leaving the country. “I had visited Nepal one and a half months ago to attend the Asia-Pacific Conference and I was going to Seoul via Bangkok,” a source quoted Gilani, as saying.

According to Gilani, he was stopped from taking the flight despite the fact that “I had informed the NAB judge regarding my World Summit departure”. He added that the Foreign Office and the interior ministry were also aware of his foreign tour.

“I have been appearing before the courts and facing the allegations against me,” said Gilani, adding that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government should stop violating basic human rights and give up the politics of revenge because it would not bode well for prime minister Imran Khan.



“My basic human right has been violated by preventing me from the travel,” the former premier said, adding: “If a former prime minister faces coercion so how would a common man get protection?”

The former premier’s children took to the microblogging website Twitter to express their displeasure over the incident. “My father Yusuf Raza Gilani was stopped at Lahore airport while going to Seoul for World Summit 2019, where he was the keynote speaker. His name is Not in the ECL, as he travelled to Nepal a few weeks ago.”

According to Fiza Batool Gilani, he received no letter whatsoever that his name had been placed on a blacklist. “What is a blacklist?” she wrote on Twitter. “This is political victimisation by the selected govt of PTI. reminds one of dictator rule where basic human rights are denied. Highly condemnable.”

Gilani’s son Ali Haider tweeted: “This is a vindictive act of the selected govt constantly targeting their opponents.”

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that stopping Gilani from travelling was a violation of basic human rights. "Trampling the rights enshrined in the Constitution is the character of the government," he said. He added that the government was afraid of the opposition.

PPP Secretary-General Nayyar Bukhari condemned the travel ban on Gilani. He said that the rulers were bringing disrepute to the country. He said that organisers of the World Summit in Seoul had been informed about the incident.