Aides to decide if ex-PM’s name should be on ECL or not

Published March 22, 2018
PRIME Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chairs the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.—INP
PRIME Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chairs the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.—INP

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Wednesday set up a sub-committee to decide whe­ther the names of over 800 people, including former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members, would be placed on Exit Control List (ECL) or not.

The cabinet that met with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the chair has assumed the responsibility to decide the ECL cases, instead of the interior ministry.

The sub-committee comprises Law Minister Bashir Mehmood Virk, Minister for States and Frontier Regions retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Law Barrister Zafarullah.

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A member of the cabinet, who did not want to be named, told Dawn that the cabinet would decide the fate of over 800 people, including Mr Sharif and his family members, regarding the ECL.

Asked if any timeframe was given to the sub-committee, he said: “No timeframe has been given to it but it will accomplish its task soon.”

The National Accountability Bureau, which is pursuing three corruption references against Nawaz Sharif and his family in the accountability court of Islamabad, has recommended placing their names on the list. But the interior ministry has not acted upon the recommendation.

Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal briefed the cabinet on the ECL policy and said out of 800 names, 600 had been put on the ECL in August 2016.

Last week Mr Iqbal and his predecessor Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan engaged in a war of words on the ECL issue as the former said he had devised a new ECL policy under which only the federal cabinet would decide the fate of people whose names were to be put on the list. Chaudhry Nisar said the decisions on the ECL were being taken somewhere else, instead of the interior ministry.

The issue surfaced when an opposition leader, Naveed Qamar, raised the question on the floor of the National Assembly on March 15 why names of Nawaz Sharif and his family members were not being placed on the ECL despite recommendation by the NAB.

The cabinet also took some other decisions, including app­roval of the Deep Sea Fishing Licensing Policy 2018 and the National Food Security Policy.

The cabinet approved establishment of a fund at the State Bank of Pakistan for line of credit facility for microfinance banks and microfinance institutions.

It approved appointment of presiding officer in Special Court (offences in banks-II) Lahore; appointment of judges in Special Court (central-II & III) Lahore and Special Courts (central) Rawalpindi; and extension in deputation period of member technical, Customs Appellate Tribunal, bench-II, Lahore.

The meeting also approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between China and Pakistan in the field of forestry, an MoU for establishment of Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation bet­ween Pakistan and Tanzania, signing of an agreement for establishment of a joint commission between Pakistan and South Africa, signing of an MoU on cooperation in tourism with Sri Lanka and Pakistan, signing of an MoU between the Foreign Service Academy and Banda­ranaike International Diploma­tic Institute of Sri Lanka, signing of an MoU between Pakistan Gems and Jewellery Develop­ment Company and Gems and Jewellery Research and Training Institute of Sri Lanka, signing of an MoU with Brazil in the field of health, signing of an agreement with China on cooperation in frontier health quarantine and signing of an MoU with Germany for establishment of Pakistan-Germany Renew­able Energy Forum.

The meeting also accorded approval to extension in the contract employment of the chief executive officer of the Pakistan Industrial Develop­ment Corporation.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2018

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