Names of Zardari, Talpur struck off no-fly list

Interior ministry removes names of Zardari, Talpur from ECL

ISLAMABAD: The interior ministry has removed the names of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

However, names of 1,082 people including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, son-in-law Captain (retd) Mohammad Safdar and former chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme Farzana Raja are still on the ECL.

According to the documents available with Express News, during the past three years, more than 1,000 names were put on ECL. These included 460 people from Punjab, 356 from Sindh, 96 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and 24 from Balochistan. 14 names were put on ECL from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, four from Gilgit-Baltistan and 38 from Islamabad. The details of more than 80 people have not been disclosed in terms of provinces.

The interior ministry put the names of 248 suspects on ECL on the information acquired by intelligence agencies, 205 on the directives of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) while another 254 suspects had their names included on ECL on the directives of Supreme Court and high courts.

According to the report of the interior ministry, 71 people were put on ECL on the directives of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) while 47 names were included on the directives of the ministry itself.



In the documents received by Express News, it has been revealed that the interior ministry put 86 names on ECL on the directives of the Home department Punjab, 20 on the recommendations of Home department Sindh and seven on the directives of Home department KP.

According to the documents, on the reports of intelligence agencies, 111 names were added to the ECL from Punjab, 36 from Sindh, 46 from KP and three from Balochistan. Nine names from Islamabad and one each from Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK were also added.

Similarly, on the recommendations of NAB, 82 names were added to the ECL from Punjab, 72 from Sindh and nine each from KP and Balochistan.

Another 46 names were included in the ECL on the directives of FIA from Punjab, five from Sindh and Islamabad and three from AJK.

According to the documents, more than 100 names have also been included in ECL from other departments including anti-narcotics, Federal Board of Revenue and treasury.

The documents revealed that during the past three years, 3,049 names were removed from ECL. Of these 1,103 were from Punjab, 613 from Sindh, 179 from KP and 92 from Balochistan.

More than 1,000 names were removed from AJK, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad.