Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: A few hours after they were stopped at the Islamabad airport Sunday by immigration authorities, Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) MNAs were given a one-time permission to travel to Kabul .
According to Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar, PM Imran directed the interior ministry to give a one-time permission to the two PTM MNAs to travel to Kabul. Dawar and Wazir’s names have been placed on the Exit Control List since May 2019 after the Pakistan Army said both MNAs had incited a group of PTM supporters to attack the Kharqamar checkpost.
The PTM MNAs’ were traveling to Kabul to attend Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s oath taking ceremony on Monday.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said that Wazir and Dawar had not sought permission to travel to Kabul. She said the two MNAs’ names were on the no-fly list. Responding to Dawar’s criticism, she said his statement was “misleading and an attempt to malign state institutions”.
The interior ministry, on the other hand, backed Dr Firdous’s statement, saying that the PTM MNAs had not sought permission to travel to Kabul. The ministry said that it was the prerogative of the Ministry of Interior to handle affairs related to the ECL.
Dawar and Wazir are critics of the PTI-led government and state institutions. In May last year, a clash between PTM supporters and security forces at the Kharqamar checkpost left three people dead and five soldiers injured.
The two MNAs were accused of inciting PTM supporters to attack the Kharqamar checkpost, resulting in the clash. Dawar and Wazir had denied allegations.
A statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) blamed Dawar and Wazir for assaulting Kharqamar check post.
“They wanted to exert pressure for the release of suspected terrorists’ facilitator arrested the other day. Troops at the check post exercised maximum restraint in the face of provocation and direct firing on the post,” the Pakistan Army’s media wing had said.
However, after spending four months in Bannu jail, Dawar and Wazir were granted bail and released. They continue to deny charges of attacking the military checkpost.
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has stopped ‘blacklisted’ Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leaders Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir to leave for Kabul, media reported on Sunday.
The action was taken by FIA officials at Islamabad International Airlines where the PTM leaders, Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, were ready to depart for Afghanistan’s capital Kabul through a foreign airline flight, RQ-928.
Dawar and Wazir have been offloaded from the flight due to the inclusion of their names in the blacklist and exit control list (ECL). Sources said that the leaders engaged in a verbal fight with the FIA staff members at the airport.
It is pertinent to mention here that the PTM leader and a Member of National Assembly (MNA) Ali Wazir had been accused of delivering hate speech and desecration of Pakistani flag in a case registered by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) police on March 3.
The case has been registered on the complaint of Charsadda SHO.
MNA Ali Wazir involved in the desecration of Pakistani flag, hate speech and provoked people against the national institutions in his speech at a public gathering, the First Information Report (FIR) reads.
