ISLAMABAD:
The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) on Monday stayed a landmark ruling by the Lahore High Court (LHC) that had struck down key provisions of the Passport Rules 2021, restoring the federal government’s powers to deactivate passports and impose long-term travel bans on deportees and suspected human traffickers.
This interim measure means the state can continue to place individuals on the Passport Control List (PCL) and restrict their movements until the highest court issues a final judgment on the matter.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, hearing an appeal by the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports, issued notices to the respondents, including citizen Farhan Ali and officials of the Federal Investigation Agency.
The case stems from the expulsion from Iran of Farhan Ali, a resident of Vehari. After his return, the FIA recommended listing his name on the PCL, after which the DGIP deactivated his passport and imposed a five-year travel ban on him.
Ali challenged this decision before the Multan Bench of the LHC, which on December 23, 2025, ruled in his favor, stating that Rule 23 of the Passport Rules, allowing inactivation of the passport, went beyond the scope of Section 8 of the Passport Act, 1974 and was therefore ultra vires.
The LHC had also held that imposing a travel restriction of five years or more under Rule 22(2) was substantially ultra vires the parent Act, observing that the powers to cancel, seize or confiscate a passport did not inherently include the power to “deactivate” it.
However, in its appeal, the DGIP argued that the High Court had struck down Rule 22(2)© even though Ali had not challenged this specific provision in his original petition.
The FIA further argued that Ali was deported from Iran after leaving Pakistan illegally and violating foreign immigration laws, as well as international norms.
“Pakistan, as a responsible state, has approved the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, 2000 and signed the protocol of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, which is the main global legal instrument to combat human trafficking,” the DGIP petition highlights.
The petition claimed that discouraging illegal immigration was a responsibility of the state, adding that individuals who brought the country into disrepute could not be allowed to benefit from employment opportunities abroad. During the hearing, Justice Rizvi questioned whether the case concerned illegal migration in the broad sense or travel via informal or “dunki” migration routes.
Representing the government, Additional Attorney General Chaudhry Aamir Rehman said Ali’s inclusion in the PCL was a direct consequence of his expulsion from Iran.
The petition further claimed that under Section 11 of the Passport Act, 1974, the federal government could delegate its powers to the DGIP, which had legally framed the 2021 passport rules.
Citing section 21 of the General Clauses Act 1897, he argued that the power to cancel, seize or confiscate a passport inherently included the power to “deactivate” it, just as the power to create includes the power to modify or revoke.
The DGIP also referred to the Supreme Court’s directions in a 2017-2018 human rights case that called for standard operating procedures to blacklist human traffickers and deportees, including cancellation of passports and temporal restrictions.
He argued that restricting the movement of deportees was in line with international commitments and stressed that the right to travel abroad under Article 15 of the Constitution was not absolute.
The petition urged the FCC to reverse the LHC’s decision and uphold the validity of individuals’ placement on the PCL for five years under Rule 22(2)©, arguing that the measure was neither arbitrary nor ultra vires.
