Pak removes 5K from travel blacklist
Immigration and passport panel directed to meet biannually ‘Illegal’ hiring: PIA ex-MD held
Islamabad, Oct. 18: Pakistan authorities have removed the names of over 5,000 individuals from the travel blacklist after the government took note of the problems faced by citizens whose names have been blacklisted for a long time, according to a media report on Sunday.
Interior Minister Ijaz Shah, in a meeting held recently, directed the review committee of the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports to meet biannually to review cases of blacklisted individuals. The meeting was held after a gap of almost four years. The previous meeting was held in December 2016. Taking note of problems faced by the blacklisted citizens, the minister directed the
Islamabad, Oct. 18: Pakistan International Airlines’ former managing director Aijaz Haroon has been arrested on charges of illegal appointment of a Pakistani-American to a senior position at the national flag carrier at a huge salary package in violation of human resource department rules, according to a media report on Sunday. The Federal Investigation Agency on Saturday also arrested PIA’s former human resource director Mohammad
Immigration and Passports director general to immediately convene a
Haneef Pathan along with Haroon, The Dawn News reported, quoting FIA Deputy Director Abdur Rauf Shaikh.
An FIR has been registered against the two former officials on charges of illegal appointment of Salim Sayani as deputy managing director (DMD) in PIA in 2009 in “clear violation of PIA HR rules”, the report said.
Sayani has also been booked in the case. He was appointed on a monthly salary of $20,000 along
meeting of the periodical review committee to consider cases on merit and with other perks and privileges that caused huge loss to the national exchequer. Sharing details of the perks and privileges, Shaikh said apart from the salary in US dollars, Sayani was allowed to stay at a five-star hotel for three months and his family was also provided accommodation in Dubai on PIA’s expense. The “illegal appointment caused a loss between Rs 200 million and Rs 250 million to the exchequer”, the report quoted Shaikh. remove names from blacklist after the process, according the due to a report in the Dawn newspaper. The committee reviewed the names of citizens falling in category B of the blacklist and removed the names of 5,807 individuals out of a list of 42,725 people.
The committee will consider rest of the cases in its forthcoming periodic review, the report said. There are two main blacklist categories- Category ‘A’ includes names of those involved in serious crimes like terrorism, money laundering and anti-state activities, whereas the ‘B’ category mainly has names of deportees who had either travelled abroad on forged documents or were found involved in crime in the host country, it said.