LAHORE: Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza of the Lahore High Court on Friday overruled a registrar office objection on a petition by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf President Parvez Elahi, his son Rasikh Elahi and daughter-in-law Zahra Elahi, challenging the inclusion of their names in different lists carrying travel restrictions.

The LHC registrar’s office objected to the maintainability of the petition, saying a similar plea by the petitioners had already been decided by the court.

Justice Mirza heard the petition as an objection case and overruled the office’s objection with a direction to fix its hearing.

The LHC had on July 8 ordered the interior ministry to remove the names of Mr Elahi and his two family members from the no-fly lists, allowing them to travel abroad.

However, the fresh petition says, the authorities temporarily removed their names, only to re-include them later.

The petition stated that Mr Elahi wishes to travel abroad with his family to perform Umrah.

It asked the court to order the authorities to permanently remove the names of the petitioners from the no-fly lists.

The former chief minister of Punjab was placed on the Passport Control List (PCL), while the two other members of his family were named in the Exit Control List (ECL).

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2024