IHC orders FIA to immediately remove Shehzad Akbar, Shahbaz Gill from no-fly list

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed on Wednesday the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to immediately remove the names of PTI politicians Shahzad Akbar and Shahbaz Gill from its no-fly list, it was reported.

Akbar served as accountability advisor to former prime minister Imran Khan, who was recently ousted from office, while Gill was the special assistant on political communication. Earlier, it was reported that Akbar and Gill, along with four other former PTI government members Arsalan Khalid, Azam Khan, Gohar Nafees and Mohammad Rizwan had been put on the 'stop list'.

During the hearing today, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah came down hard on the FIA for not implementing the court's earlier order of removing Akbar's and Gill's names.

FIA officials told the high court that the former government members' names were put on the list amid the deveoloping polticial situation in Pakistan, it was reported. This comes as PTI's Imran Khan lost a no-confidence motion against him by an opposition that included PML-N and PPP.

Justice Minallah directed the officials to ensure that Akbar's and Gill's names were taken off the list immediately, and told the FIA DG that no one should be harassed.

The next hearing will be held on April 18.

During the previous hearing on Tuesday, Justice Minallah had suspended the FIA's order of adding the names to its list and the IHC bench had directed the registrar office to issue notices to the secretary, Ministry of Interior and the director general, Federal Investigation Agency.

Shahzad’s, Gill’s names in stop list: IHC suspends FIA’s order

The bench further said "nominated officials shall appear at 10:30am today (Wednesday) and explain who had authorized placing of the names of the petitioners and other three officials closely associated with the former prime minister on the list.”

The IHC chief justice said, “they are expected to satisfy the Court that the action was not based on victimization.”

The court said that until further action is taken, the operation of the no fly list to the extent of the polticians in question shall remain suspended.