Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan urges investigations to take place before putting name in ECL, Name of Pakistani journalist Cyril Almeida put on ECL By. Asghar Ali Mubarak
Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan urges investigations to take place before putting name in ECL, Name of Pakistani journalist Cyril Almeida put on ECL
By. Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday said that a complete investigation should be carried out before any Pakistani’s name is put on the Exit Control List (ECL).
When questioned about Cyril Almeida’s inclusion on the ECL, the interior minister said that he would have a meeting with senior APNS and CPNA officials in the capital regarding the matter.
Earlier the Pakistani journalist Cyril Almeida has been put on the Exit Control List (ECL) after his controversial report in Dawn newspaper on a recent meeting between government and military bigwigs. Reportedly, he first visited Goa, India in 2012 to participate in an arts and literary festival, and then followed it up with two more visits. After studying B.A. in Law in England, Almeida returned to Karachi. He practiced law for about a year and changed careers to become a journalist with Dawn.
“I am told and have been informed and have been shown evidence that I am on the Exit Control List,” Almeida, who is Dawn’s assistant editor, confirmed on Twitter.
I am told and have been informed and have been shown evidence that I am on the Exit Control List. “Was a long-planned trip, for at least several mths now? There are certain things that I will never, ever forgive. I feel sad tonight. This is my life, my country. What went wrong? Puzzled, saddened. Had no intention of going anywhere; this is my home. Pakistan,” he said in a series of tweets.
ECL is a system of border control maintained by the government under an ordinance which bars people whose names appear on the list from leaving the country.
The Pakistani authorities have yet to comment on the development.
In his story, the prominent journalist had claimed rifts between the country’s civilian and military leaderships.
The government has strongly denied the report.
Spokesman of Prime Minister’s Office rejected contents of the story as ‘speculative’ and ‘misleading’ as well as ‘factually incorrect’.
“It is an amalgamation of fiction and half-truths which too are invariably reported out of context,” the PM house spokesman had said in a statement
Cyril Almeida is a Pakistani journalist and an assistant editor for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.He was barred from leaving Pakistan, after he wrote a controversial news article after 2016 India–Pakistan military confrontation, and hinted a rift between Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership. Reportedly, he was put on the Exit Control List.Almeida belongs to a community of Goan Catholics who migrated to Karachi more than a hundred years ago. His family is said to speak Konkani at home. Many members of the community left for western countries after the Partition, but about 15,000 members still live in Pakistan. Reportedly, he first visited Goa, India in 2012 to participate in an arts and literary festival, and then followed it up with two more visits. After studying B.A. in Law in England, Almeida returned to Karachi. He practiced law for about a year and changed careers to become a journalist with Dawn.
In October 2016, Dawn published a front-page article by Almeida, which said that some in the Pakistan’s civilian government confronted military officials at a top-secret national security Committee meeting. They said that they were being asked to do more to crack down on armed groups, yet, whenever law-enforcement agencies took action, “the security establishment … worked behind the scenes to set the arrested free”. He reported that the civilians warned that Pakistan risked international isolation if the security establishment didn’t crack down on terrorist groups operating from Pakistan.Following the news article published, both the offices of Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif and the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif denied the version of events printed in the article and called it as fabricated story. Sharif ordered authorities to take action against those responsible for publishing what he termed as a “fabricated” story about the military and ISI after the Pakistan’s chief of army staff Raheel Sharif called on him to discuss national and regional security issues. Dawn said that the Cyril Almeida report was “verified, cross-checked and fact-checked” and it stood by the story. The Editor-in-Chief of Dawn urged the government to refrain from “scapegoating” the newspaper in a “malicious campaign”. The Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan also announced that Pakistan would adopt a system of e-passports starting prior to June 2017.
“Within two years, we will spread e-passport.This is the way to the future,” Nisar added, saying that the system would be adopted to reduce queues at passport offices.
“People will be able to get e-passports sitting at home,” he said.
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