KARACHI – The Consul General of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Karachi, Dr Bakheet Ateeq Al Remeithi has explained that in the last 2 months, multiple complaints were received against Pakistani nationals.
In an interview with Geo News on Monday, the official detailed the reasons for the denial of visas, falling short of revealing any numbers in this regard.
The official explained that the use of social media can determine whether the UAE awards visas to Pakistanis or not.
The Consul General highlighted that regardless of which social media platform one uses either in Pakistan or UAE, whatever they share or like leaves a digital footprint either good or bad, and can determine whether the authorities would award visas or not.
If a person is creating a nuisance on social media, why do we need to grant them visas? he inquired.
Dr. Remeithi said that every country has specific laws and people from different nationalities live in the UAE, denouncing the eruption of riots if internal matters of a country deteriorate.
He said that internal matters should not disturb the routine of the UAE as people have to go to hospitals etc. and perform different daily activities.
The official said that if one talks against their country while being in UAE and provokes others, this is wrong and unfair.
Regarding the number of visas issued to Pakistanis, the official highlighted that 70,000 work visas were issued in 1.5 years, adding that the number of tourist visas may be in the millions.
The official mentioned that attestation of documents should be done by the applicant himself even if they have to take some days off and travel to Pakistan to avoid any fake/duplicate attestations.
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.
The issue of visa denial was also confirmed by the Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Chaudhry Salik Hussain, who recently said that the government was negotiating with the authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) regarding the visa restrictions.
