IHC Orders To Remove Rauf Hassan From PCL

Faizan Hashmi Published May 13, 2025 | 09:20 PM

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th May, 2025) The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday ordered the authorities to remove PTI leader Rauf Hassan’s name from the Passport Control List (PCL) and directed him to approach the trial court in the FIA case for travel permission.

The court said that the pending criminal case or the matter being under investigation is not a justification for including the petitioner’s name in the PCL.

The order to include Rauf Hassan’s name in the PCL is illegal. Justice Inaam Ameen Minhas issued a written decision approving the application to remove PTI’s Central Information Secretary Rauf Hassan’s name from the PCL.

The court wrote in a six-page decision that the petitioner is on bail in the case and the order was not challenged.

According to the passport rules, the Federal government has the authority to regulate entry and exit into the country, while approval was not taken from the federal government to impose travel restrictions on Rauf Hassan.

The court decision said that according to the lawyer, there is an FIA case against the petitioner in which he is on bail, merely because the case was registered. It is unjustified to include someone's name in the PCL.

Rauf Hassan is a cancer survivor who has to go for a check-up every six months in the UK. The court was told that the FIA recommended the inclusion of the petitioner's name in the PCL on July 24, 2024. The DG Immigration and Passports added the name to the PCL on August 26, 2024.

The court ordered the removal of Rauf Hassan's name from the Passport Control List and directed him to approach the trial court for permission to travel abroad and directed the trial court to decide the application expeditiously in accordance with the law.