Shahbaz prevented from flying despite court orders

Ag APP

LAHORE: Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif was prevented from boarding a flight leaving for Qatar on Saturday, a move the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) decried as “contempt of court”.

The PML-N president was granted a one-time permission to go abroad on medical grounds by the Lahore High Court on May 7.

Geo News described the events leading up to Shahbaz being prevented from flying. According to the report, Shahbaz, who is a cancer survivor, was to leave for Doha from Lahore airport. After spending some days in quarantine in Doha, he had planned to fly to London where he was to consult his doctors.

As he showed up to the airport in the morning, the airline issued him a boarding pass. When he arrived at the immigration counter, however, he was told by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials he could not board the plane. Shahbaz asked the officials the reason and told them about the court orders that allowed him to travel. PML-N leader Ata Tarar also read out the judicial order to the officials. The immigration officials said the court orders were okay but their system needed to be updated for him to leave the country. “Your name is still on the blacklist. And, it [the blacklist available with them] has not been updated so far,” the PML-N leader was told.

Sharif asked the officials to hand him the reason in writing. The officials gave him the off-load form that reads: “Offload by immigration.”

Several PML-N leaders, including Ata Tarar, Azma Bukhari and Marriyum Aurangzeb had gone to the airport to see off Shahbaz. Speaking to the media later, PML-N spokeswoman Marriyum Aurangzeb condemned the move as contempt of court, claiming Shahbaz was held back at the behest of Prime Minister Imran Khan and his aide on accountability Shahzad Akbar.

She also said the claim regarding the system not being updated was “false”. The FIA is committing contempt of court on Imran Khan’s order, she said, adding that the FIA said Shahbaz’s name was on “yet another list”. ”The government has resorted to outright pettiness, but this does not make any difference to Shahbaz Sharif,” she said. “You committed a gross contempt of court by disallowing Shahbaz Sharif from leaving the country despite him carrying all legal documents. Shahbaz will fly abroad in a day or two, if not today,” said Aurangzeb. Tarar also spoke to the media and said the “selected rulers have small joys”.

Meanwhile, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the inclusion or exclusion of someone’s name from the travel blacklist was the prerogative of Director General of the FIA. In a tweet, he said no application was given to the DG FIA for the removal of Shahbaz’s name from the list. “The record cannot be changed by verbal statements,” he said, adding the government would appeal the court’s decision to allow Shahbaz to leave the country.