Balochistan National Party (BNP) President Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal was stopped from boarding an international flight on Sunday, with immigration officials citing his name on the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL), a watchlist used to restrict international travel.

According to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Mengal was offloaded from a private airline flight bound for Dubai at Quetta International Airport. The officials said his name being on the PNIL was the reason he was prevented from flying.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Mengal confirmed the incident and said he was informed by immigration staff at the airport that he could not travel because his name was listed on the PNIL. “I was scheduled to fly to Dubai, but was offloaded without prior notice,” he said.

The move has sparked condemnation from senior BNP leaders. Former federal minister Agha Hassan Baloch and Ghulam Nabi Marri termed the act “illegal and unconstitutional.”

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They emphasised that Mengal is still a sitting member of the National Assembly, and his resignation, submitted earlier, has not yet been officially accepted.

“The government has no legal grounds to bar a serving MNA from international travel,” the BNP leaders said, calling for an immediate explanation from the authorities concerned.

Mengal, a key voice from Balochistan in the federal legislature, has been vocal about rights violations in the province and the enforced disappearances issue. The travel restriction is likely to draw further criticism from political and human rights circles, who see such actions as part of a broader clampdown on dissenting voices.