Your threat is not friends and family of a person they are about to receive!!!!!! It is those that are trying to cause mischief. By doing the extra security parameter you are already minimizing the threat if not completely eliminating it. If you stop relatives and friends from receiving their loved ones at the airport, "you are the one causing the difficulties and pains" not the ones to reduce it. The general population will loose their vote and confidence in You, and the current government!

Guys, try to come up with a better way to "secure" the airport. It is nothing more than making people's lives miserable.

So if the father is seeing off his son but the car is driven by a Driver, does the driver count as an additional person? Will the airport security say that there are 2 people seeing off?

i have noticed that when some one comes from Hajj or umara, the whole family and relatives go to airport to receive them in multiple cars. this makes the airport passenger area and car parking very crowded making it hard for others to come and park their cars. also these extra people throw trash inside airport....so its good step but i think it should be maximum two people allowed with passenger as some people are afraid to leave their cars locked alone in the parking area with the fear of being stolen.

the family will come home and will go from home so its ok to have this measure to control the incoming and outgoing traffic. its not always necessary to have 1000s of ppl at the airport to say good bye to one person! there is no difficulty or pain in this measure. we al should co-operate for safety purposes.

I always felt insecure when coming out of the airport and having an aimless herd of prying wayfarers and jaywalkers ogling at me and my luggage... i'd rather be seen-off by no one than to have dozens of strangers' welcome party greeting me...

@Israr Khan Ismailzai What's so miserable about it ? have you seen the hordes & hordes of people who come to see off just or receive one person & causing chaos & disruption. I think this was necessary .....remember each step taken, will ensure to safeguard our lives!!!!

@Israr Khan Ismailzai It's the terrorists that are making peoples lives a misery, the authorites are just trying to combat it. They need your support not you critisim. Unless you have a better idea?

Sounds impractical and miserable!

Its becoming so suffocating living here.

Doesn't matter. Check your attitude. I have witnessed in years of traveling through airports, You just need a 500 rupees note so that ASF don't open your bag. And to enter airport? Just a 2000 rupees note (and a fake uniform in recent case, for example), that's it. First Look into yourself and then to the people who come to see their loved ones who were abroad to earn bread and butter since years only because your corruption does not allow them to work in their own country and to live with their families.

The rangers and army, who have been given the responsibility of maintaining law and order at airports, would be well advised that tightening the yoke around common citizens does not help security. No where in the world are such restrictions in place especially in democratic countries. Why do we have the unique honor of switching off mobile phones, having an open display of guns and guards on back seats of VIP four wheelers, and incessant checking of cars by the police, not to mention the blinding torch light that is fired on drivers in the night to se who is in the vehicle. All this to no avail. Terrorists strike through back doors. There are so many forces on the streets of Karachi but not a week goes by without an incident. Citizens would be more than happy with such measures if results are produced.

Its a good decision, people here have so much free time that to receive 1 person returning from abroad, whole bunch of families including distant aunties, uncles including kids will flock at the airport even choking bathrooms & crowding the whole airports, sleeping and occupying places wherever possible!

Does that mean every one seeing off or receiving has to enter separately instead of a group? ;-) Imagine the fuss of checking every manifest of aircraft? I would call it a failed attempt. Instead proper monitoring system along with CTC would be a better idea. But then, long live Pakistan and its way so of doing things. :-)

Good idea. If this secures the airport then people will have bare with this. Anyone not happy go USA, you will find out how long you have wait for checks.

The implementation of permitting one person to either receiving or seeing off at the airport terminals shall cause massive difficulties to the relatives of the person either travelling in or out of the country. Such goals of beefing up security at the airports shall not minimize the threat of terrorism rather an inclusive woes to the passengers visiting Pakistan after reckonable number of years. The ultimate solution may have been planned before invoking such ruling by constructing certain lounges or parks around the airports so that relatives and friends can converge upon arrival or before departure.

@Shariq same question here

The implementation of permitting one person to either receiving or seeing off at the airport terminals shall cause massive difficulties to the relatives of the person either travelling in or out of the country. Such goals of beefing up security at the airports shall not minimize the threat of terrorism rather an inclusive woes to the passengers visiting Pakistan after reckonable number of years. The ultimate solution may have been planned before invoking such ruling by constructing certain lounges or parks around the airports so that relatives and friends can converge upon arrival or before departure.

another door open for corruption for CAA staff of taking bribe and allowing more than two persons to enter the airport lounge

I think the government has done the right thing. Terrorists come from amongst u. At airports it's not normal to see off one person a bus load arrives which is what actually happens. Less people mean less stress on security. GOOD SENSIBLE MOVE. Now ensure no one is allowed protocol to enter the airport to receive or send off guests, security is for all. And check all the Americans and Europeans that go through airports without checks.

Typical real fauji mind has come up with this plan.

Hopefully this rule applies to all, including VIPs, VVIPs, VVVIPs, VVVVIps, .................

When the terrorist attacked wearing uniforms some time ago, authorities came with a brilliant idea to ban sale of uniforms in the open market. That didn't work and repeated attacks happened all wearing uniforms. The authorities forgot that anyone can procure few pair of uniforms as long as we have tailors in this world. Now they have come with another brilliant idea. Is this chaudry nisar's brainchild along with his military minded advisers?

We have to ask ourselves that does the Karachi airport attack has anything to do with friends/relatives of travelers at the airport terminals? Of course not. The security emphasis is misguided and totally irrelevant to the incident. What we need is more patrols on the outside/inside perimeters of the airport, installation of security cameras, setting up concrete barriers and beefing up the security at the cargo terminal especially when terrorists used the same cargo terminal before to attack the airport.

This move is necessary for the circumstances we're in. Why would people want to go to the airport these days anyway? Chin up, everyone. An attitude adjustment is in order.

@Perveznawaz How many times Terrorists came through the Passenger gates? It is easy way out to show that Government doing some thing on security by stopping general Public

How revolting. This is their way of saying: "We can't do our job, i.e. we cannot provide proper security at the airport, as we have no clue what's going on in the country. Our Intelligence services have let us down and we are going to let you down. So, please, reduce our workload and make things easier for us by sending less people to the airport!"

good move! Our airports are swamped with people who have no reason to be there ...

One person see-off/arving rule is only for general public not for VIPs. Any regulation in Pakistan has ways to by-pass. VIPs call security heads to allow the family of his brother.

The terrorist have won! They have changed our lifestyles. So sad!

Policy makes sense. Say good by to love ones at home and welcome them at home, in peace. It's already hard to get out of the airports when from luggage helper to taxi drivers are trying take over over you and your family.

Thus this Govt admits it cannot do its job.If the people suffer so be it, VIPs should not.Will this silly rule apply to them also? No I suppose. All thinking is anti people.

This is good and should be an interim move to see how effective it is over a period of time and how we can handle crowd at the airports in a better way. We must look at other international airports and see how they handle their much larger passenger volumes. Just Toronto airport handles more than 85,000. passengers daily. Or even Istanbul Kamal Ataturk airport which perceived to be a is a 3rd world country, there is barely any congestions, people pushing people over at arrival and departure gates, porters competing and trying to snatch your luggage cart and taxi drivers and their touts bugging you every 2 minutes with question "sahib Taxi". All this has to be organized and handled in a better way. For taxis, the current modus operandi is that they park and have their drivers and touts hunt for passengers at the arrival terminal, strike a deal, the tout gets his commission and the driver gets the passenger. They should be made to line up by the curb to drop and pick passengers like it happens in other civilized country and not allowed to park. If one passenger see/off receive rule does cause too much inconvenience, may be the answer is to impose a fee which will still limit the number of people. Long story short, the current system has to change and brought in line with the rest of the world. terrorism or no terrorism.

Does this apply to VIPs, VVIPs, VVVIPS or do they get to keep their entourages?

The step is unwanted and cannot be recommended. The people want to know if the other hidden opening and back doors are closed and secured with check posts or these are still open to terrorists? Have the authorities devised a way that the authorized personnel on duty could recognize each other and the ones who have entered in their guise? If not then it will happen again.

yeah while nothing on double sawari, despite the fact, its always 2 guys on a bike that does the damage outside, am I the only dumb person in the room to be saying this? guess so !! ...and yes, you don't need every cousin and chacha, taya to drop you off at the airport. I don't know how it started but cut it out guys, its 2014. personally I always went to airport alone, despite the fact an entourage wanted to follow me.

why are we s o helpless..................... hopefully reforms at elections can change........ with a corrupt mindset , poverty lack of eduacation and moral degradation one cannot help but be trodden under the the rich and feudals..................

How will they implement this rule? I mean what if the second person says that he wants to buy a ticket?

@Abdullah are you kidding.....airport is the last place where the "friends and relatives" should meet. :). There is an operation going on these days and this is a precautionary measure. Hopefully you will have all the time in the world to meet your friends and relatives on airport when the situation is more peaceful. Till then use cellphones :)

The arrangement seems good. But how will the security personnel deployed at the airports ensure that the person being allowed in to the terminal building for receiving the passengers is genuine. Second how will they stop more than one person entering the terminal building using old-boys net? To make the system fool proof the CAA must ask all the incoming airlines to provided complete list of passengers with names of persons who are going to receive them at the airport minimum 24 hours before arrival. The airlines can easily collect the information at the time of issuing tickets.

I recollect many years ago when Japan tightened security following internal terrorist threats. Our bus from the city hotel to Narita was stopped a couple of km outside the airport, and armed security entered the bus, checking all passengers. The entire passage from there to the airport was sanitized, and we underwent a couple of more checkpoints, before security at the airport itself! I don't know how it is done now, but imagine similar tight security. I support the sanitizing of the airports and closing of all approaches to the airports, and checking vehicles and passengers as they enter, in a multi-tier security system.

This may be the most absurd step. We know our tradition and culture. People often comes in group to receive their loved ones coming from any foreign country particularly on Umra and Haj. I don't know how security will improve but this will make suffering to the poor relative and friends who come to receive their dear ones.