MM Report
ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: The United Arab Emirates has stated that nearly 500 visas are being processed daily for Pakistani nationals, while an official from Pakistan’s Interior Ministry informed the Senate that the Emirates had halted visa issuance for Pakistanis, except for holders of diplomatic and blue passports.
Additional Interior Secretary Salman Chaudhry highlighted growing concerns over passport misuse, human trafficking, and the vulnerabilities facing overseas Pakistanis. The briefing, chaired by Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri on Thursday, warned that Pakistan had narrowly avoided a complete international ban on its passports – a step officials said would have been “extremely difficult” to reverse.
He informed the committee that 21,647 Pakistanis are currently imprisoned across 61 countries, mostly for minor offences such as overstaying visas, identity fraud, and bank-related violations. He also highlighted that 93 per cent of Pakistan’s overseas workforce, nearly 800,000 people, is employed in Gulf states, underscoring the economic stakes tied to regional labor mobility.
Meanwhile, the UAE Consul General in Karachi, Bakhit Atiq Al-Rumaiti, has dismissed reports suggesting that the United Arab Emirates has stopped issuing visas to Pakistani citizens. Al-Rumaiti said the consulate was experiencing an unprecedented surge in visa applications. “In the past three years, we have never seen such a rush as we are witnessing now at the Karachi consulate,” he said, stressing that the claims of a visa suspension were completely false.
The UAE Consul General in Karachi noted that for certain types of visas, applicants are required to book appointments well in advance, which can exceed a month due to high demand. Al-Rumaiti said the consulate remained committed to serving applicants efficiently despite the current backlog, assuring citizens that visa services were fully operational.
