No room for ‘revenge-based’ action
Zubair Qureshi
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah on Wednesday admonished the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials over their failure to abide by the court’s directive of temporarily removing the names of the two key members of former prime minister Imran Khan’s government — Dr Shahbaz Gill and Mirza Shahzad Akbar — from the no-fly list. The court directed that PTI leaders’ names be taken off the “stop list” immediately.
“The government should demonstrate that it will not take actions based on revenge,” Justice Minallah said, adding the court would not allow it. He further directed the FIA Director General (DG) not to “harass” anyone.
Chief Justice Minallah made these remarks while hearing petitions filed by Gill and Akbar, who have sought the revocation of the FIA move that bars them from travelling abroad.
Their names, along with those of four other PTI members — namely Imran Khan’s focal person on digital media, Dr Arsalan Khalid; ex-PM Imran’s principal secretary Azam Khan; Punjab Anti Corruption Director-General Gohar Nafees; and FIA Punjab Zone Director General Mohammad Rizwan — were added to the no-fly list earlier this week.
Subsequently, Gill and Akbar had approached the IHC on the matter and the court had provided them interim relief on Tuesday, suspending the FIA order to place their names on the no-fly list.
In Wednesday’s hearing, FIA officials told the court that the PTI members’ names were put on the “stop list” amid the “emerging circumstances in the country”.
What had happened? Had a martial law been imposed?” Justice Minallah questioned
The officials told the court that the complaint over which the PTI members’ names were included in the list was received on April 8.
However, at the previous hearing, the petitioners’ counsel had argued that his clients’ names were placed on the list at around 2am on April 10 — immediately after the National Assembly passed a vote of no confidence against prime minister Imran Khan.
The FIA further told the court that the complaint was forwarded by the FIA Islamabad Zone. They added that Akbar and Gill’s names had been added to the list “for having assets beyond means”.
These statements earned the FIA ire of Justice Minallah, who said: “What do you mean? Did the previous (PTI) government open these cases against them (PTI members)? Be serious.”
“Since when has the FIA become so independent to register cases against people in the incumbent government?” the judge added. “Don’t embarrass yourself. Bear in mind that this constitutional court will not let you do all this. The court will not allow all this to happen.”
He said the new government should “demonstrate that it will not take actions based on revenge”.
In their petitions, Dr Gill and Mr Akbar had submitted that their names were placed on the list at around 2am on April 10 — immediately after the National Assembly passed a vote of no confidence against former prime minister Imran Khan.
Mr Akbar said placing him on the no-fly list was a consequence of mala fides and requested the court to summon the FIA director general in this regard.
It was argued that the PNIL had no statutory backing and, according to the applicable notification, usually names of those people who committed heinous offences were placed on it. It was pointed out that no case had ever been registered against the petitioners.
