THE Exit Control List has a chequered history in this country. Though it is supposed to be a legal tool to prevent individuals suspected of committing crimes from fleeing Pakistan, it has far too often been used as an ugly stick to beat political opponents and critics of the government with and to prevent them from freely travelling abroad. However, it has recently emerged that apart from the ECL, there are other lists too that have been designed to prevent people from leaving the country. One of these is the FIA’s Provisional National Identification List; the existence of the list came to light during a meeting of the Senate standing committee on human rights on Wednesday. The new list, created 10 months ago as per FIA officials, is designed to ‘bypass’ the ECL. In fact, the PNIL was used to prevent two MNAs — Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir — from flying to the UAE recently. Apart from the PNIL, there are other lists, senators were told, used by the security apparatus to restrict people’s movement, including the Red List, Black List and the Watch List.

Clearly, there is some justification for no-fly lists; for example, those accused of grave crimes can be prevented from leaving the country. However, this does not mean that the state should have carte blanche to put whoever it feels on its no-fly lists. As Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari stated at the Senate committee meeting, “the PNIL is arbitrary, cloak-and-dagger, and opaque”. Indeed, there should be one list to prevent suspects from fleeing abroad, and the process of placement on it ought to be transparent and open to appeal. It is ironic that in many cases extremists and hatemongers are allowed to travel abroad, while the freedom to travel for lawmakers and human rights activists is curtailed on flimsy grounds. The federal government should do away with these multiple no-fly lists, and make a very strong case legally if a citizen is to be stopped from flying out for criminal reasons. For too long, the ECL has been misused by the powers that be. Now, it seems that newer and more opaque lists are also in existence. If the PTI-led government is serious about its mantra of ‘change’, then these arbitrary methods of preventing people from travelling freely without just cause must be done away with.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2018