Despite a Senate investigation, the UAE affirms that Pakistanis are not subject to visa restrictions.

Shortly after informing the Pakistan Senate of purported limitations, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) denied rumours of a visa ban on Pakistani nationals.

All visa kinds are being processed, according to Bakheet Ateeq Alremeithi, the UAE Consul General in Karachi, who informed local media that allegations of a prohibition are “completely false.” He continued by saying that the Karachi consulate is seeing an unheard-of increase in applications, with some categories now requiring reservations more than a month in advance—the biggest demand in the previous three years.

Senate briefing

The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights was previously briefed by Additional Interior Secretary Salman Chaudhry, who claimed that the UAE was only granting visas to holders of diplomatic (blue) passports. He noted that Saudi Arabia had also thought about limiting Pakistani passports and cautioned that a possible restriction would be hard to undo. To stop abuse or anomalies in passport issue, the interior ministry has acquired digitised records of 180–200 million citizens.

However, the UAE official clarified that there had been instances of some Pakistani travel agents falsifying visa application documents, which caused problems for both applicants and officials. A biometric method was implemented in order to preserve transparency. Currently, there are about 2.27 million Pakistanis living in the United Arab Emirates, and those who commit minor infractions can have their records corrected.

UAE-Pakistan relations

Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates have strong cultural, diplomatic, and economic ties. One of Pakistan’s biggest Middle Eastern trading partners and a significant recipient of remittances is the United Arab Emirates. Numerous Pakistanis still reside and work in the United Arab Emirates, supporting its economy while keeping close ties to their homeland.