Interior minister ordered Zulfi Bukhari’s name off blacklist

• Azam Khan tells Senate body Imran Khan’s friend had submitted affidavit assuring that he would return to Pakistan after six days
• Bukhari tells court NAB doesn’t have jurisdiction to investigate him since he is a British citizen

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Interior Minister Azam Khan on Thursday admitted that he had granted permission to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s close friend Zulfi Bukhari to travel abroad.

In a briefing to the Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior, Azam said Bukhari asked for a one-time permission to travel abroad, which was granted.

Azam said he was informed by the interior secretary that Bukhari wanted to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah with the PTI chairman, but was stopped from leaving the country due to his name being on the blacklist. The interior secretary further told him that Bukhari had submitted an affidavit stating that he would return to Pakistan, Azam said, following which he was granted permission to travel for six days.

The minister, however, denied that Imran Khan had phoned him to remove Bukhari’s name from the blacklist.

He further told the committee that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is probing a case pertaining to offshore companies against Bukhari.

“NAB requested to place Bukhari’s name on ECL but his name was placed on the blacklist in the absence of a cabinet committee so that he would not leave the country,” Azam said.

Earlier on Thursday, caretaker Information and Law Minister Ali Zafar said that NAB had requested to place Bukhari’s name on ECL, adding that he was, however, placed on the blacklist and not the ECL.

In a media briefing, he explained that a person’s name can be taken in and out of the blacklist without the cabinet’s approval, which is required for placing or removing someone from the ECL.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) earlier instructed Zulfi Bukhari to join an ongoing NAB probe against him.

The court issued the directives while hearing two petitions together: one filed by Bukhari seeking removal of his name from the blacklist and the other where a petitioner challenged the removal of Bukhari’s name from the blacklist within hours, allowing him to leave the country for Umrah.

Bukhari, a close aide of PTI chairman, was barred from leaving Pakistan when he proceeded to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah on June 11. Bukhari was later granted a one-time permission to go abroad for six days by the Interior Ministry.

Sikandar Bashir Mohmand, the counsel for Zulfi Bukhari, argued that his client, a British national, left for Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah along with PTI chairman Imran Khan in a special flight from Nur Khan Airbase when the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) informed him that his name was on the blacklist.

Justice Aamer Farooq of the IHC, hearing the petitions, questioned whether a blacklisted person could be allowed to travel abroad.

“On whose orders did the Interior Ministry remove [Bukhari’s] name from the blacklist?” the judge asked, demanding that it be given in writing to the court that a blacklisted person’s passport is not confiscated.

“[Some people] have [as many as] four passports and misuse the law,” Justice Farooq remarked.

A NAB prosecutor informed the court that Zulfi Bukhari failed to appear before the accountability body despite being issued notices.

Bukhari replied to a summon on March 20 that he is a British citizen and NAB lacks the jurisdiction to investigate him, the prosecutor said, adding that the bureau was not informed whether the Interior Ministry had placed his name on the blacklist. The ministry officials informed the bench that they had received a letter from the NAB on May 10 requesting that Bukhari’s name is placed on the Exit Control List.

The ministry placed Bukhari’s name on the blacklist after receiving the letter, the officials informed.

According to Bukhari’s petition, he is facing an inquiry and the NAB has issued multiple notices to him since February this year. The petitioner responded to the third notice saying that since he was a British national, NAB lacked the jurisdiction to investigate him.

Zulfi Bukhari, speaking to reporters outside the IHC, said he was not given any reason for the placement of his name on the blacklist.

“My name was not on ECL, it was on the blacklist,” he clarified, adding, “I have only one passport, and I travelled abroad on that passport.”

Bukhari added that if summoned by NAB, he would appear before the bureau after consulting his lawyers and tell the investigators about his businesses.