islamabad - The Islamabad High Court was moved yesterday seeking court’s directions to investigate removal of Zulfi Bukhari’s name from the Exit Control List and usage of Noor Khan Airbase for facilitating the departure of a private individual through a private airplane.

 The petition was moved by a citizen named Muhammad Kausar through his counsel Inamul Rahiem Advocate and cited federation of Pakistan through Secretary Ministry of Defense, Secretary Ministry of Interior and Director General (DG) Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) as respondents.

 The petitioner stated that on 11-6-2018, Zulfiqar Hussain Bukhari, commonly known as Zulfi Bukhari, accompanied the PTI Chairman Imran Khan to Saudi Arabia to perform pilgrimage. The petitioner stated that he was stopped by immigration authorities at Noor Khan Airbase as his name was on the ECL.

 He added that Zulfiqar’s name was placed on the ECL along with other owners of offshore companies in line with the order of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in connection with its probe into the Panama Papers scandal. 

He added that the Supreme Court, taking action against all the owners of offshore firms, directed NAB to place Bukhari’s name on ECL.

 Petitioner maintained that the PTI chairman used his influence with the caretaker government to have Bukhari’s name removed from ECL and the ministry of Interior in this regard issued a letter granting a one-time “permission” to Bukhari for six days.

 The counsel for Kausar contended that proper procedure was not followed for the removal of Zulfi’s name from the ECL which required clearance from the cabinet’s sub-committee that deals with the ECL cases.

 He added that it has also been alleged that Bukhari’s name was removed from ECL on the intervention of interim Interior Minister Azam Khan who is closely linked to PTI Chairman Imran Khan.  He continued that the interim interior minister is a board member of Imran Khan Foundation (IKF), a charity and welfare organization managed by PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

 Inam argued that in order to further compromise the impartiality of the interim government and state institutions, special arrangements were made for PTI Chairman Imran Khan to use the Air Force Base to fly from his chartered plane with full protocol. “The use of a military base for his private visit was against the rules and such a facility is not extended to any other citizen or the head of any other political party,” said the counsel.

 He adopted that removal of the name of Bukhari from ECL without due process of law by the interim government and use of a military Air Base by the PTI Chairman Imran Khan compromised the impartiality of the interim government and military establishment.

 “The respondents have completely failed to perform their legal obligations with true spirit by acting partially and beyond the call of duty in facilitating PTI Chairman Imran Khan thus warranting initiation of criminal proceedings against all those responsible for dereliction of their duty,” maintained Inam.

 Therefore, he prayed to the court that the matter may be investigated by DG FIA that on whose orders and directions the name of Zulfiqar Hussain Bukhari was removed from Exit Control List and under what authority of law Noor Khan Airbase, reserved for defense purposes was used for facilitating the departure of a private person through his private plane.

 He further requested that appropriate disciplinary/criminal proceedings may be initiated against entire chain of command for compromising the impartiality and fairness of forthcoming general elections.

 Besides this, the following law points were also raised in the petition that whether the present interim government would be able to conduct free and fair elections as per the constitution and mandate of law, whether name of a person placed on ECL on the direction of apex court could be removed by any subordinate officer of the FIA, whether the Defense Secretary is empowered to allow any civilian to use military base for landing and taking off a private Aircraft without security clearance from apparatus of state secret agencies, especially when the name of that individual is already on ECL.

 He also questioned whether the members of caretaker government are above the constitution and law and not answerable to anyone and whether in the presence of interim setup under the constitution, certain invisible forces are still having influence and effect on the daily and routine state affairs.