September 19, 2018 (MLN): Prime Minister Imran Khan has appointed his close aide Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari, as his special assistant on overseas Pakistanis and human resource development with the status of Minister of State.
Bukhari is currently under National Accountability Bureau (NAB)’s scrutiny for allegedly owning off-shore companies in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), and owning assets beyond his known source of income.
He caught the public eye earlier this year when the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) stopped him at the Noor Khan Airbase, from traveling to Saudi Arabia for Umrah.
He was told that his name was on the blacklist therefore he could not be allowed to travel. However, he was granted a one-time permission few minutes later, and was to return within six days.
Upon returning, Bukhari filed a petition before Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking removal of his name from the blacklist. This petition was initially accepted by the court and an order was issued for the removal of his name from the blacklist.
However, the Ministry of Interior informed IHC a week later, that Bukhari’s name was placed in the blacklist as an alternative to NAB’s request to put his name in the Exit Control List (ECL), since the subcommittee responsible for approving inclusion of names in ECL was dysfunctional at the time of NAB’s appeal.
On July 15th, the court permitted the Interior Ministry to carry out NAB’s request and place Bukhari’s name on ECL.
