PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday declared illegal the federal government’s act of placing the names of the wife and children of former agency surgeon of Khyber Agency (now Khyber tribal district) Dr Shakil Afridi on the Exit Control List for travel restriction, and ordered their removal.

A bench consisting of Justice Abdul Shakoor and Justice Syed Arshad Ali accepted a petition jointly filed by Dr Shakil’s wife Imrana Shakeel and his three children against the interior ministry’s decision to place their names on the ECL.

The bench pronounced a short order after the completion of arguments by both sides.

Dr Shakil, who is accused of helping the American CIA trace Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, is serving a 23 years jail term at Punjab’s Sahiwal Central Prison.

DAG says travel restriction imposed on recommendation of security agencies

His plea against his conviction by an assistant political agent in 2012 and upholding of that conviction by the then commissioner of the Frontier Crimes Regulation in 2014 has been pending with the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) tribunal, which is currently non-functional.

Advocate Mohammad Arif Jan Afridi appeared for the petitioners and contended that his clients were law-abiding citizens and were not required by the government for any crime.

He said in an illegal manner the government had placed the names of the petitioners on the ECL without assigning any cogent reason.

He contended that the names of the petitioners, including Mrs Imrana, her two sons and a daughter, could not be placed on the ECL if they didn’t commit any crime.

During the hearing, the bench asked a deputy attorney general why the names of the petitioners were put on the ECL when they were not required in any case.

The DAG said that the names of Dr Shakil’s family members were placed on the ECL on recommendation of security agencies.

The bench wondered how the name of an individual could be placed on that list merely on the recommendation of a security agency when the individual was not charged with committing any offence.

The DAG opposed the petition and contended that the names were included on the ECL by the last federal government.

He stated that as presently a caretaker government was on the centre, which had limited functions to perform, therefore, they could not take decision regarding removal of the names from the list.

It is pertinent to mention that soon after the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011, Dr Shakil was taken into custody by the Pakistani intelligence agencies.

A report of the joint investigation team, on the basis of which Dr Shakil was convicted, claimed that the former agency surgeon supervised a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad that led to the tracing of Osama bin Laden.

On May 23, 2012, it was made public by authorities that Dr Shakil was tried by an assistant political agent and additional district magistrate of Bara (Khyber district) on multiple counts under the “mechanism” mentioned in Section 11 of the FCR.

He was awarded 33 years imprisonment and Rs320,000 fine.

The FCR commissioner heard his appeal on March 15, 2014, upheld his conviction but reduced his sentence to 23 years imprisonment along with a fine of Rs220,000.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2023