ISLAMABAD: Mohsin Dawar, an MP and leader of the ethnic Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) group, has been stopped from flying to Tajikistan’s capital city of Dushanbe to attend a conference on Afghanistan.
Dawar, who was scheduled to attend the annual meeting of Herat Security Dialogue (HSD), said he was stopped by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) at Islamabad airport even after the “cabinet had removed my name from ECL [Exit Control List] for two months” now.
I was stopped at Islamabad airport by FIA & prevented from travelling to Tajikistan to attend Herat Security Dialogue.This is outrageous as cabinet had removed my name from ECL for 2 months.Once again Neutral Havaldar demonstrates that he has more authority than the federal govt. pic.twitter.com/vveOt13vNK
— Mohsin Dawar (@mjdawar) November 27, 2022
The lawmaker from Miran Shah tehsil of North Waziristan district said he “was on my way to board the plane when I was stopped.”
“It felt that they had been ordered to do that in advance,” he said in a series of tweets.
“When I reached the counter, I was told that my name was on the ECL. I told them that the cabinet has removed my name from the list [but] they told me that they were directed on a call to not let me go.”
In a thinly-veiled reference to the army, Dawar, a member of the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PMD) coalition, lamented: “Once again neutral Havaldar [sergeant] demonstrates he has more authority than the federal government.”
