LAHORE: A day after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) suspended the placing by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of key aides of former prime minister Imran Khan — Shahbaz Gill, Shahzad Akbar and four others — on the Exit Control List (ECL), it rebuked the agency over its failure to abide by the directive and ordered that the two be immediately taken off the list.
“The government should demonstrate that it will not take actions based on revenge,” Chief Justice Athar Minallah said, before adding that his court would not allow it either.
He further directed the FIA director general not to “harass” social media activists.
The decision was announced on a petition filed against placing them on the no-fly list a day earlier. Gill and Akbar filed the petition through their counsels, pleading with the court to order the removal of their names from the list.
The petitioners maintained that the foreign travel ban placed by FIA is illegal as no cases or inquiries were underway against them.
The plea asked the high court to immediately remove the “illegal” travel ban.
The FIA has placed the names of six key aides of former Khan on a stop list. The names include Khan’s former principal secretary Azam Khan, Gill, Akbar, Punjab Anti-Corruption Director-General Gohar Nafees, and FIA Punjab chief Mohammad Rizwan.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) social media head Dr Arsalan Khalid’s name has also been added to the stop list, sources added.
