People with pending cases can travel abroad

LHC says section 8 of Passports Act doesn’t mention blacklisting

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Thursday allowed those with pending cases against them to travel abroad.

“It is true that the case against the petitioner has not been decided so far but cannot be a ground to deprive him of his right to travel abroad,” LHC’s Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh observed in a detailed judgment.

Justice Tariq declared para 51 of the Passport and Visa Manual, 2006 as “ultra vires”. He observed that it went beyond the legislative policy of the Passports Act.

The respondent, Asif Iqbal, had lodged an FIR on March 7, 2012 at the (Federal Investigating Agency) FIA Lahore Police Station against petitioner Sheikh Shan Ilahi and his brother Sheikh Irfan Ilahi for offences under sections 17 and 22 of the Emigration Ordinance, 1979, alleging that they had received Rs900,000 for sending him to England on a work visa but had not fulfilled their promise.

The FIA investigated the case and found that the petitioner and his brother were innocent and prepared their discharge report.

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The respondent was not satisfied with the investigation so he filed a private complaint in the court of the Lahore (Central) special judge, who declared the petitioner and his brother as proclaimed offenders as they had proceeded abroad in the meanwhile.

Through a subsequent order issued on November 12, 2014, the special court directed the FIA director general to issue necessary caution at all the immigration points in the country.

The FIA deputy director did the same with recommendations that the petitioner and his brother be blacklisted under para 51 of the Passport and Visa Manual, 2006.

After some time, Irfan Ilahi flew to Pakistan. He was arrested and produced before the special judge, who granted bail and presently he is facing trial.

Later, he requested the FIA authorities to remove his name from the blacklist, which they did. The petitioner, Shan Ilahi, is still fugitive from law and is presently in Dubai.

His passport expired on April 6, 2020 and could not be renewed because of the blacklisting. Therefore, he moved the LHC.

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Petitioners in different pleas have assailed para 51 of the Passport and Visa Manual 2006. The court observed that the manual had been prepared to carry out the aims and objects of Passports Act so that was the governing law.

It added that section 8 of the Act only mentioned the cancellation, impounding and confiscation of passport. The judge further noted that it did not say anything about blacklisting, which was a category apart. The Passports Rules 1974 are equally silent on the issue.

The deputy attorney general was apprehensive that striking down of para 51 would have serious repercussions.

“It is trite that the courts have to decide cases in accordance with the law for the time being in force and if a situation arises due to any flaw or lacuna therein, parliament must play its role,” the judgment read.

The judge noted that Advocate Mehmood A Sheikh had rightly pointed out that in appropriate cases, the federal government could proceed under Standing Order No 2.

“Further, it has the option to digitally impound the passport of a particular person for which a mandate can be found in section 8 of the Passports Act. To that end, due process would however be required.”

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In another plea, the petitioner, Syed Anwar Shah, and his wife, Farhat Anwar, are overseas Pakistanis and stationed in Saudi Arabia.

On May 24, 2016, Farhat came to Pakistan on a six-week visit and on June 7, 2016 when she went to the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore to take a flight back to Saudi Arabia, the FIA authorities stopped her.

She was informed that she and her husband were blacklisted for being proclaimed offenders in an FIR registered at the FIA Police Station for offences under sections 420, 468, 471 PPC, section 6 of the Passports Act, 1974 and section 30 of the NADRA Act, 2002.

Farhat was arrested but was granted bail by the special court. Subsequently she filed a writ petition for removal of her name from the blacklist which was accepted on August 31, 2016.

In December 2020, the petitioner also came to Pakistan to face the case and clear himself of the charges. The FIA authorities arrested him at the Islamabad International Airport but he was later granted bail by the court.

The petitioner also sought delisting from the blacklist. The petitioner’s counsel placed arguments opposing the conduct through which the couple’s names were blacklisted. The law officer, however, opposed the petition.