ISLAMABAD: Justice Aamer Farooq of the Islamabad High Court on Friday ordered removal of the name of Zulfi Bukhari, a close friend of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan, from the blacklist of the interior ministry, enabling him to travel abroad without any constraint.

The IHC judge accepted the petition filed by Syed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari aka Zulfi Bukhari, following the June 11 incident when he was briefly stopped from boarding a chartered flight at the Noor Khan Airbase from where he wanted to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah along with Imran Khan, his wife, Aleem Khan and others.

Immigration officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had stopped Mr Bukhari from boarding the plane after detecting through the integrated border management system (IBMS) that his name was included in the interior ministry’s blacklist. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had requested the ministry to place his name on the no-fly list.

Mr Bukhari, a British national, was later permitted to travel.

Matter made headlines last month when PTI chief’s friend was first stopped at airport and then allowed to fly abroad

Justice Farooq had on July 3 reserved the judgement on the petition after hearing arguments of Mr Bukhari’s counsel, Deputy Attorney General Khaliq Thind and Additional Deputy Prosecutor General of NAB Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi.

Arguing before the court, Mr Abbasi said the petition was not maintainable since Mr Bukhari was seeking relief against the directive of NAB. He said that NAB had asked the interior ministry to put Mr Bukhari’s name on the ECL (Exit Control List), but the ministry had put him on the blacklist instead.

The deputy attorney general argued that the interior ministry had evolved a mechanism for including names in the blacklist and that Mr Bukhari was allowed to travel on June 11 under the discretionary power.

At this, Justice Farooq asked how a discretionary power was exercised over a phone call. Did the interior ministry lay down the rules just to break them, he wondered.

Earlier on Monday, the defence ministry, in response to a petition filed by a citizen through his counsel retired Lt Col Inamur Rahim against the use of Noor Khan Airbase for private individuals, told the court that the airbase was used because there was no facility to operate chartered flights at the newly constructed Islamabad International Airport.

The petitioner adopted before the court that Mr Bukhari’s name was included in the blacklist, but he had been allowed to travel to Saudi Arabia on mere a phone call.

The petitioner asked whether the name of a person placed on the orders of the apex court on the blacklist could be removed by any subordinate officer of the FIA and whether the defence secretary was empowered to allow any civilian to use the military base without security clearance from the state secret agencies, especially when the name of that individual was included in the no-fly list.

The court, however, dismissed the petition that sought action against the air force authorities for permitting the private chartered plane to use the airbase.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2018