By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan thanked the coalition government for putting him on a ‘no-fly list’ stating that he does not plan to go overseas as he does not have any property or businesses abroad and does not even hold a bank account outside the country.
“I want to thank the government for putting my name on the ECL (Exit Control List) as I have no plans to travel abroad because I neither have any properties or businesses abroad nor even a bank account outside the country,” Khan tweeted. “If and when I do get an opportunity for a holiday, it will be in our northern mountains, my favorite place on earth.”
On Thursday reports emerged that Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi, and other leaders and former assembly members of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party were barred from leaving the country.
Khan’s statement was in response to various media reports, citing sources that he would be added to the no-fly list.
The list includes Murad Saeed, Maleeka Bokhari, Fawad Chaudhry, Hammad Azhar, Qasim Suri, Asad Qaiser, Yasmin Rashid, and Mian Aslam Iqbal, reported Geo News.
Local media also claimed that some of the PTI leaders and office bearers tried leaving the country in the last three days, however, they were stopped at the airports.
There has been no official confirmation of Khan being added to the no-fly list.
Khan’s tweet comes a day after Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that the government is considering imposing a ban on PTI over the incidents that took place on May 9.
Separately minister Asif called the former premier an “instigator” of rioters who attacked state assets and military installations to protest the opposition politician’s arrest earlier this month, and did not rule out his trial before a military court.
Khan’s detention in a land fraud case on May 9 was met by days-long violent protests by his supporters who torched private and government cars and buildings, including military installations.
Many of Khan’s closest associates, as well as thousands of supporters of his party, were subsequently arrested, and the army announced in the aftermath that those found involved in the violence would be tried under relevant Pakistani laws, including the Army Act.
In an exclusive interview with Arab News , the defense minister said only those suspects against whom “absolutely foolproof or ironclad evidence” of instigating attacks on military installations was found would be tried under army laws.
“There will be very, very few people who will be tried under that law,” he said. “People, maybe two or three or four people, who were leading or who were instigating those people.”
The minister’s remarks came as a Pakistani court in the eastern city of Lahore on Thursday handed 16 civilians over to the military for trial over their suspected involvement in the pro-Khan violent protests.
The defense minister also did not rule out the possibility of Khan being tried under the Army Act and facing a military court.
“He is an instigator,” Asif said. “Evidence has to be evaluated, and the lawyers or legal advisers of the government will look into it.”
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
