Zulfi Bukhari criticised his own govt. as his petition states: “the petitioner filed a representation and review petition…despite passage of about two months, the review petition of the petitioner has neither been put up for the cabinet, nor decision has been taken thereon by the federal government”.
ISLAMABAD: Sayed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari, popularly known as Zulfi Bukhari, is a close friend of Prime Minister Imran Khan and recently appointed as the special assistant to the Prime Minister on overseas Pakistanis and human resource development, has submitted a petition to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking removal of his name from the Exit Control List (ECL).
The interior secretary, National Accountability Bureau chairman, Federal Investigation Agency and others have been made respondents in the petition submitted by Advocate Sikandar Bashir.
The petition states that travel restrictions on Zulfi Bukhari is against basic human rights, thus, the interior ministry’s decision should be suspended and directives should be issued the concerned authorities for return of travel documents including Zulfi Bukhari’s passport.
The interior ministry, on a request of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), had placed Mr Zulfi Bukhari’s name on the ECL since he is facing an inquiry about “accumulating assets beyond known sources of income”.
Initially, the interior ministry instead of putting his name on the ECL had put it on the black list to restrict his movement.
Even though his name was on the ‘Blacklist’, he managed to go to Saudi Arabia before the general elections as the interior ministry had lifted the travel ban on him within a few minutes as he was accompanying Imran Khan to perform Umrah.
Then Mr. Bukhari challenged putting of his name on the black list before the IHC. The court removed his name from the list, but allowed the interior ministry to proceed on NAB’s request for placing him on the ECL.
His name was placed on the ECL by the Interior Ministry on August 4 on a request by NAB.
In his recent petition, Mr Bukhari argued before the court that he “is a British citizen of Pakistani origin…and is currently at Islamabad…his spouse and children are domiciled [in UK] and where his business interests are managed from”.
The petition said that Mr Bukhari was cooperating with the investigation team, but “was shocked and dismayed to learn” that his name was placed on the ECL.
According to the petition, Section 3 of the Exit from Pakistan (Control) Ordinance, 1981, provides for a right of review for any order made by the federal government, however, such a review only creates an illusory remedy.
Interestingly, Zulfi Bukhari criticised his own government as the petition states, “the petitioner filed a representation and review petition…despite passage of about two months, the review petition of the petitioner has neither been put up for the cabinet, nor decision has been taken thereon by the federal government”.