Islamabad: Names of 5,807 individuals were struck off Pakistan’s travel blacklist after consultation with relevant agencies and departments, the Interior Ministry announced.
The decision on Saturday came after Interior Minister retired Brig Ijaz Ahmad Shah took notice of the problems being faced by citizens whose names remained on the blacklist for a long time, reports Dawn news.
He then directed the Immigration and Passports director general to immediately convene a meeting of the periodical review committee to consider cases on merit and remove names after the due process.
Accordingly, the committee reviewed the names of citizens falling in category B of the blacklist and proposed removal of 5,807 individuals from the list of 42,725 people. The names were then removed by the relevant authority.
The meeting was held on October 8 after a lapse of almost four years, the previous meeting having taken place December 1, 2016. Meanwhile, a Ministry official told Dawn news that there were two main blacklist categories.
Category ‘A’ included names of those involved in serious crime like terrorism, money laundering and anti-state activities whereas, Category ‘B’ mainly had names of deportees who had either travelled abroad on forged documents or were found involved in crime in the host country, he said.
Passports of everyone on the blacklist, however, stood cancelled, the official added.