Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Sunday said the government had chalked out a new policy on the Exit Control List (ECL).

Addressing a press conference, he said in the past the ECL was misused and many people were put on it. However, now thousands of names had been removed from the list after clearance from the departments concerned on whose recommendations they were put on the ECL.

He said about 52,000 people were blacklisted by the Directorate of Passports in the past. Some 8,000 names had been on the ECL for the last three decades.

The government, he said, had not included the name of a single person in the ECL on political basis and this practice would continue in future too.

He said from now on, only the Interior Ministry would deal with the ECL. The names of people recommended by the courts, besides defence and sensitive organisations, would be put on the ECL.

A five-member review committee would scrutinise the cases on monthly basis, he added.

The minister said investigative agencies would have to complete the inquiry against people who were put on the ECL, in a year while cases against them would have to be disposed of within three years.

After the lapse of three years, names on the ECL would be removed after serving final notices on the departments/agencies concerned, the minister added.