The minister was referring to the previous federal government led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which is being blamed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led ruling coalition for present bad economic conditions and rising inflation in the country.
“These ‘economic terrorists’ are national criminals and they will not be permitted to leave the country,” he said in a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior.
Rana Sanaullah said that former prime minister Imran Khan should apologize to the nation for his alleged “incompetency, corruption and for looting the national wealth.”
“Imran Khan was voted out through a political process,” he said, adding that he was “a fugitive of the political field.”
A day earlier, the federal cabinet in its meeting under the chair of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had formed an ECL committee headed by Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar to review the existing no-fly list that swelled during the last PTI government.
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb had said after the meeting that the Prime Minister had directed the committee to review the ECL and present its report to the cabinet within three days.
The government believes that the previous government allegedly committed political victimization by placing many members of the then opposition parties on ECL and another temporary stop list. It is likely that the government would remove names of a number of politicians belonging to the ruling coalition.
The official sources said that the government had also decided to stop misuse of ECL in future and would make new rules on ECL to ensure that anyone’s name would only be included in the list under solid reasons and extreme necessity. The government also wants that a time frame should be fixed to decide on the applications of those whose names are placed on the list. This is because many applications are pending with the government for years due to red-tapism.