RAWALPINDI: The federal government’s directorate general of immigration and passport has asked the home departments of four provinces and all law-enforcement agencies to mention the correct particulars of an individuals required to be placed on the blacklist to stop them from leaving the country.

The aim of the directive is to avoid inconvenience to citizens who are not involved in any case at airports.

The directorate general, immigration and passport said it had been observed with great concern that names and particulars of some individuals who were required to be placed on the blacklist were forwarded by various agencies and departments with wrong identification numbers.

Some names of individuals were placed on the blacklist and due to the wrong information provided by the agencies and departments other travellers were intercepted at airports by immigration authorities while processing their passports.

This not only creates issues for the citizens but also brings embarrassment and a bad name to the government departments.

In a letter to the home departments of Punjab, KP, Sindh, Balochistan and AJK, the director general immigration and passport asked them to convey the information to all attached departments eligible to recommend individual names for inclusion in the blacklist.

In addition, the chairman NAB, the additional inspector general of police of four provinces and Islamabad and the director general of Anti-Narcotics Force were also asked to mention correct particulars of an individuals, including their name, parentage, CNIC and passport numbers to avoid inconvenience.

A number of cases were received by the directorate of immigration and passport from the district police officers, city police officers and superintendents of police for placing names of accused persons on blacklist at times on an immediate basis to prevent them from traveling abroad.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had said keeping people on the exit control list and the blacklist for a long time without any cogent reason was inappropriate. He had announced plans to cut down the two lists.

Mr Ahmed had also revealed that there were around 4,500 individuals on the ECL and several hundreds on the blacklist.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2021