The Gulf country United Arab Emirates (UAE) has almost stopped giving visas to Pakistani citizens and this has come to light not from any rumor but from the official confirmation of a senior official of Pakistan’s Home Ministry.
He told the Parliament’s Human Rights Committee that some time ago UAE and Saudi Arabia had also considered banning Pakistani passports completely, but the decision was stopped at the last moment. According to the committee, if this ban had been implemented, it would have been very difficult to remove it.
At present the situation is that UAE is issuing visas only on blue (official) and diplomatic passports. Most Pakistani citizens hold green passports and visas are almost completely banned on them.
Senate Committee Chairperson Samina Mumtaz Zehri also confirmed this and said that the UAE is worried that some people going from Pakistan go there and get involved in crime, begging or illegal activities, which affects the image.
Officers told the committee that very few visas have been issued in the last few months and those that have been issued have been issued only after a long and difficult process.
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Meanwhile, the UAE Ambassador present in Pakistan met the Finance Minister in Islamabad to improve the visa process. Like there has been talk on e-Visa, online application, fast processing. The new visa center is also processing around 500 applications daily.
Relations between UAE and Pakistan have been close for a long time. Millions of Pakistanis work there and business partnerships are also strong. But in the last few months, tension had increased due to increase in visa rejections. In July, the Home Minister of Pakistan had put this issue before the UAE leadership, from where assurance of some relaxation in the visa policy was received.
Despite this, the biggest concern of UAE remains the same. People who go on visit visa and get involved in wrong activities. However, the committee clarified that there is no restriction on work visas.
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