Travel ban: Interior secretary, FIA chief put on notice

Shahzain Bugti petitions IHC for removing name from ECL.

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday issued notices to top govt officials to justify the inclusion of a Baloch nationalist leader’s name in the exit control list (ECL).

Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan put the interior secretary and the director-general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on notice and asked them to file their replies by May 16.

Jamhoori Watan Party chief Shahzain Bugti requested the court to order the interior ministry to remove his name from the ECL so that he could travel abroad in a petition filed in the IHC.

Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel, Babar Awan contended that his client was a political figure and the former government had fabricated cases against him and included his name in the ECL. He requested the court to direct the ministry to remove his client’s name from the ECL.

Shahzain’s name was placed on the ECL after he was arrested in December 2010, by officials of the Frontier Corps at the Buleli checkpoint near Quetta.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2014.