ISLAMABAD – Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Chaudhry Salik Hussain, has confirmed that the government was negotiating with the authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) regarding the visa restrictions.
In a fresh interview, the minister said the country’s top leadership, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was very concerned about visa restrictions by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The foreign ministry was in talks with the Emirates to resolve the issue, Salik Hussain was quoted as saying by Arab News.
It is to be highlighted that a few days ago, UAE’s Consul General in Karachi, Ambassador Bakheet Ateeq Al Remeithi, denied reports regarding visa restrictions and clarified in a video statement that the Emirates was providing 100 percent facilities for the issuance of visas.
However, Salik Hussin’s comments confirm the ‘unannounced’ visa restrictions and come days after media reports emerged about the decline in visas for Pakistanis by the UAE and a decrease in overall overseas employment for Pakistanis.
Though there has been no official statement regarding the reasons behind such a decline, it is believed that the visa denials are due to defiance of UAE laws. Salik Hussain also detailed the reasons that Pakistanis abroad were indulging in political activities and talking about sensitive issues, in public and on social media.
The issue of Pakistans in UAE is becoming sensitive and last week, Dr. Arshad Mahmood, the secretary of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis, told the lawmakers that 50 percent of the crime rate in the UAE was reportedly attributed to Pakistanis.
It is to be highlighted that when Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch was asked about whether the ministry was taking up the issue with UAE, she responded by saying that as far as she understood, there is no ban on the issuance of visas to Pakistani nationals by UAE; however, Salik Hussain’s confirmation tells another story.
Besides visa restrictions, Salik Hussain said the government was identifying individuals who were potentially violating the law overseas, adding that their identification cards or passports could be suspended.
It is to be mentioned that UAE hosts about 1.7 million Pakistanis, the second largest Pakistani expat community in the world.
The data by the State Bank of Pakistan confirms that the volume of remittances from the UAE to Pakistan in the fiscal year 2022 was $2555.22 million, implying that a sizeable Pakistani workforce is employed in the country in diverse fields from banks to real estate, media, insurance, etc.
