JIT ECL seems ambiguous, incomplete details may trouble others

KARACHI: Like the recent recommendation of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to close a long-proceeded Asghar Khan case, previously various high profile cases were also affected, including Panamagate and Khanani & Kalia Money Exchange case.

According to the report, various high profile cases were closed due to the lake of evidence and poor prosecution as the JIT report on Panamagate was based on hypothesis, while all the accused in Khanani & Kalia Money Exchange case got acquittal from the court and all the charges were dropped.

The report said the current list of 172 people, put into the Exit Control List (ECL), seemed to have been abruptly made as it has a number technical faults. The list has three columns, including the first column with the names of the accused person, second his CNIC number and third was for the remarks having details about father’s name and business or employer’s name.

Astonishingly, the CINC numbers of at least 14 people were not in the list, including the Sindh Minister Imtiaz Sheikh and Shahrukh Jatoi, infamously known for the Shahzeb murder case and the proprietor of the Baloch Construction Company. The Daily Jang had published a news on December 5th regarding the proprietor of ‘The Baloch Construction Company’. The JIT had summoned Sikander Jatoi, who sent his younger son Shahzad Jatoi, the brother of Shahrukh Jatoi, who is in jail.

Meanwhile, Shahzad Jatoi recorded his statement and provided the required documents, later endorsed by Sikander Jatoi and instead of the names of Sikander Jatoi or Shahzad Jatoi, for some ‘unknown reasons’ the name of Shahrukh Jatoi was included in the ECL.

The report said similarly a close relative of a high profile personality in Sindh government and owner of one of the biggest construction companies in Pakistan, allegedly involved in securing contracts of trillions of rupees in the last 10 years, was called for investigation but nothing heard about the aftermath. Interestingly, the name of his relative, who is in the Sindh government, was present in the ECL.

In front of 14 names, in the column of ID card number ‘not avaliable’ is written. The report said the third column of the JIT report has described at least 28 people as being not avaliable. For example the name of the owner of Khanani & Kalia Muhammad Munaf was in the list but other details including CNIC number and father’s name were not available according to the report.

It is incomprehensible that despite spending millions of rupees and assigning senior officers in the JIT, the report still seemed to be ambiguous. The JIT failed to claify details of the alleged suspects of various crimes though it put their names on ECL. This may trouble the people with similar names on airports.