Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and 600 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders and former assembly members have been denied permission to fly out of the country. The names of the former ruling party leaders and their chief were added to an FIA travel ban list after being found involved in the desecration of martyrs’ monuments on May 9th.
The Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) included the names of the party leaders in their Provisional National Identification List (PNIL) to stop them from leaving the country. The list includes Imran Khan, Murad Saeed, Maleeka Bokhari, Fawad Chaudhry, Hammad Azhar, Qasim Suri, Asad Qaiser, Yasmin Rashid, Mian Aslam Iqbal, and Bushra Bibi, the former prime minister’s wife.
According to sources within the authorities, PTI leaders and office bearers attempted to leave the country in the past three days, but authorities halted them at airports. The police, counter-terrorism department (CTD), and intelligence agencies sent their names to prevent them from fleeing the country, given their alleged involvement in the May 9th riots resulting in eight fatalities and dozens more injuries.
The authorities have arrested thousands of PTI workers and leaders since the crackdown on the party. Several party lawmakers including Shireen Mazari, Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry, Aamir Mehmood Kiani, Malik Amin Aslam, Mahmood Moulvi, Aftab Siddiqui, and Fayyazul Hassan Chohan, among others, have already dissociated themselves from the PTI party after the May 9th violence on state installations.
