LAHORE: Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday approached the Lahore High Court one-time permission to go abroad for medical treatment.
Justice Ali Baqar Najafi would proceed with the petition on Friday (today).
Challenging the placement of his name in a blacklist/no fly list, Shehbaz through his counsel contended that the government previously placed him on the Exit Control List (ECL).
However, the LHC had suspended the government’s act and given him a one-time permission to travel to United Kingdom for medical checkup in 2019. He came to know recently that his name had been placed on the blacklist at the behest of the present regime, said Shehbaz.
He said the authorities concerned refused to furnish the documents to him on the basis of which his name had been placed in the blacklist.
He argued that the right to travel abroad is encapsulated in freedom of movement enshrined in article 15 of the Constitution. He said the impugned act of the respondents showed malicious intentions after the removal of his name from the ECL by the court. The petitioner pleaded that there is no provision in the Passports Act 1974 regarding the notion of blacklist, however, the federal government formulated the passport and visa manual 2006, which explicates the procedure and circumstances in which the name of a person can be blacklisted for passport facilities.
Shehbaz said those sitting at the helms of affairs are aware about the severity of his health and have maliciously placed his name in the blacklist.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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