Pakistani authorities on Wednesday recommended placing the names of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and 28 others on the Exit Control List due to their alleged involvement in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption scandal.
Popularly called the ‘no-fly list’, the Exit Control List (ECL) is a list of people prohibited by law from leaving Pakistan by any means.
The recommendation was made by the subcommittee of the cabinet which met with the caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti in the chair, according to a statement by the Ministry of Interior. The committee deals with placing or removing names from the ECL.
Advertisement
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had proposed a no-fly ban on Khan, also the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, and others required in the case of alleged 190 million pounds or Rs 50 billion corruption.
“The committee recommended putting the names of 41 people sent by various departments and institutions on the ECL. On the recommendation of NAB, names of 29 people, including Imran Khan, were recommended to be put on the ECL in the 190 million pounds scandal,” the ministry stated.
The ministry also said its recommendations have been sent to the federal cabinet for approval.
Khan, 71, was initially arrested in the said case earlier this year from the premises of the Islamabad High Court but was later released after the Supreme Court declared the arrest unlawful.
Advertisement
On November 14, the PTI chief, who is already imprisoned in Adiala Jail in the cipher case, was again arrested by the NAB in the Al-Qadir Trust case. He was then handed over to the watchdog on physical remand.
The Al-Qadir case alleges that Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, obtained billions of rupees and land worth dozens of acres from Bahria Town Ltd, a real estate company, for legalising Rs 50 billion that was identified and returned to the country by the British government. Khan was the prime minister when the UK government sent the money back, which was transferred from Pakistan in dubious circumstances by the Bahria Town owners.
The PTI chairman was arrested initially on May 9 in the same case which resulted in widespread riots in the country by his supporters. He was released within days by the order of the Supreme Court.
He was again arrested by NAB on Nov 14 when he was already imprisoned in Adiala Jail in the cipher case, in the Al-Qadir Trust case when an accountability court handed him to the watchdog on physical remand for investigation.
Earlier, the government placed Khan and his wife and dozens of his party leaders and activists on the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL), a controversial substitute for the ECL, in May following riots to prevent them from leaving the country.
