IHC issues notices on plea against travel restrictions on citizens
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued notices to the secretary of interior, the director of immigration, and the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on a petition challenging unnecessary travel restrictions imposed on citizens travelling abroad.
A single-judge bench of Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir on Wednesday issued notices to the three officials seeking their response in the petition filed by Judicial Activism Panel through its counsel Azhar Siddique Advocate.
The bench also issued notices to the Attorney General for assistance in this important legal issue wherein the petitioner challenged vires of Rule 22 of Passport Act regarding passport control list and also challenged vague and discretionary placement of name on the ECL.
Through the instant writ petition under Article 199 of the Constitution, the petitioner challenged the vires of the second limb of Rule 22(2)(b) of the Passport Rules, 2021, on the touchstone of Sections 8 and 13 of the Passports Act, 1974, read with Articles 4, 9, 10-A, 15, and 25 of the Constitution.
The petitioner further assailed the placement of citizens on various non-statutory travel restriction lists (including the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL), Blacklist, and Stop Lists maintained under executive standard operating procedures), and sought a writ of mandamus directing respondents No 1 to 4 to establish an integrated, auditable travel-status system, review all existing entries subsisting on the Provisional Control List (PCL), and restrain the placement of citizens on any restriction list without explicit statutory sanction.
After hearing the arguments, the IHC bench issued notices to the respondents for filing report/para wise comments in the matter within a fortnight.
Justice Arbab also observed that since the constitutionality and vires of a federal rule are directly under challenge, let notice under Order XXVII-A of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, be issued to the learned Attorney-General for Pakistan for assistance.
Later, the bench deferred hearing of the case until December 3 for further proceedings.
In his petition, Azhar requested the court to declare that the secret and opaque stop lists, including the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL) and the Black List, insofar as the same are maintained via departmental standard operating procedures or office memoranda without statutory cover, are illegal, ultra vires, unconstitutional and void under Article 8 of the Constitution.
He also requested that the second limb of Rule 22(2)(b) of the Passport Rules, 2021, insofar as it permits the names of persons to be placed upon the Passport Control List upon the recommendation of government agencies or departments, is ultra vires Sections 8 and 13 of the Passports Act, 1974 and Articles 4, 9, 10-A and 15 of the Constitution, and is accordingly void and of no legal effect, as already held in Moin Ud din versus Federation of Pakistan (supra), and direct the Respondents to give full and immediate effect to that declaration.
He prayed to the court to issue a writ of mandamus directing Respondents No 1, 2, 3 and 4 to establish, within a specified and reasonable period to be fixed by this Court, a Universal Integrated Travel Status System, tentatively titled “PAK TRAVEL STATUS,” covering the ECL, PCL, PNIL, Black List, Stop Lists, court-imposed restrictions and INTERPOL-related entries, accessible to every citizen through secure, two-factor verified means, including a challenge-and-removal module, a mandatory audit trail and a judicial-order compliance module.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026