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Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates have strong cultural, economic, and diplomatic ties. With a sizable population of Pakistani expatriates residing and working there, the UAE is one of Pakistan’s biggest trading partners in the Middle East and a significant source of remittances.
The secretary revealed this information during a meeting of Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights. That Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates had “stopped short of imposing a ban on the Pakistani passport”.
He cautioned, “If a ban is imposed, getting it removed would be difficult.”
According to the official, only holders of diplomatic and blue passports are currently eligible for visas from the UAE.
The head of the Senate committee on human rights, Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri, independently verified the interior ministry official’s comments to Dawn. She claimed that worries about visitors to the UAE “getting involved in criminal activities” were the reason behind the bar.
She informed the committee that the UAE was not granting visas to Pakistanis and that only a small number had been granted recently “after much difficulty.”
A senior diplomat in the UAE embassy, who wished to remain anonymous, denied rumors on social media that Pakistanis were prohibited from obtaining visas. He told Dawn that “there is no ban on visas for Pakistani citizens” in response to a query about the alleged “ban.”
