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ISLAMABAD – The federal government has decided to introduce new passport rules to give legal cover to all of its actions about placing citizens in different no-fly and black lists and regarding refusal of issuance of passports.
The draft of Passport Rules 2021 has already been approved by the Secretary Interior Yousaf Naseem Khokhar and is waiting for final approval of the cabinet, a senior government officer informed The Nation.
The human rights activists and civil society were showing their concerns in the past over the presence of a number of no-fly and black lists maintained by the Ministry of Interior and its subordinate departments when the Exit Control List (ECL), a no-fly list, is the only one that is regulated under the law.
According to official sources, the new rules are being introduced as the previous Passport Rules, 1974 had become redundant and obsolete due to which Ministry of Interior and Directorate General of Immigration and Passports (DGIP) have been facing many difficulties.
Draft of Passport Rules 2021 waiting for final approval of cabinet
The federal government has the powers to frame rules under Section 13 of Passport Act, 1974 to regulate the departure from and entry into Pakistan and visit abroad of its citizens under the powers vested by the Act.
At present, the Ministry of Interior, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the DGIP maintain various no-fly and black lists for those citizens and foreigners who either have to be stopped to fly abroad for various reasons or whose entry is banned in the country. It is only the Exit Control List (ECL) which is governed under the Exit from Pakistan Ordinance, 1981 and all other lists have no legal cover. These lists include Black List that is maintained by the Interior Ministry and Passport Office while there is another Provisional National Identification List (PNIL) which is maintained by both FIA and ministry.
For a number of times, the courts have been questioning the legality of no-fly lists like PNIL and the Black List when there is a separate ECL that is regulated under the law.
A summary sent by the Secretary Interior to the Cabinet Committee on Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) says that it has become difficult for the Interior Ministry and Directorate General of Immigration and Passports to “defend various cases filed by the aggrieved in various courts of law with existing laws and rules. For instance, there is no specific statue governing the refusal of passports.” It says, “As per Rules of Business 1973, there is a dire need to frame the new rules for smooth functioning and regulating the process of passport issuance.”
Under the new rules, the conditions for issuance of official and diplomatic passports have been revised and those certain additions have been incorporated in the entitled categories which were previously not included in the Passport and Visa Manual 2006.
As Directorate General of Passports has begun to issue Machine Readable Passport instead of manual passport, the existing rules don’t cover the former. The draft Passport Rules 2021 will regulate the process of passport issuance under the new technology, cover all matters pertaining to Machines Readable Passport besides Passport and Visa Manual 2006 has been made part of the rules.