Additional Interior Secretary Salman Chaudhry said on Thursday that the United Arab Emirates had not been issuing visas to Pakistanis.

The additional secretary made this revelation during a meeting of the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights, further stating that Saudi Arabia and the UAE had “stopped short of imposing a ban on the Pakistani passport”.

“If a ban is imposed, getting it removed would be difficult,” he warned.

The official said that currently, the UAE was only issuing visas to blue and diplomatic passport holders.

Separately, Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri, who heads the Senate committee on human rights, also confirmed that the interior ministry official’s remarks to Dawn. She said the bar was attributed to concerns about people travelling to the UAE and “getting involved in criminal activities”.

The committee was told that the UAE was not issuing visas to Pakistanis and that very few had been issued in the recent past “after much difficulty”, she said.

Meanwhile, a senior diplomat in the UAE embassy, who wished not to be named, dismissed social media speculation that there was a ban on visas for Pakistanis. Answering a question related to the purported “ban”, he told Dawn that “there’s no ban on visas for Pakistani citizens.”

UAE envoy shares steps to facilitate visa processing

On the other hand, UAE Ambassador to Pakistan Salem M. Salem Al Bawab Al Zaabi shared “major UAE visa facilitation reforms for Pakistanis” with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb today, the latter’s ministry said.

The reforms discussed during their meeting in Islamabad included online visa processing, e-visas without passport stamping, and faster system-to-system linkages, the finance ministry said on X.

Nearly 500 visas were being processed daily at the newly launched UAE Visa Centre in Pakistan, the statement added, further outlining reforms shared by the envoy.

Ambassador Al Zaabi emphasised boosting bilateral cooperation in trade, investment and cultural ties, while “appreciating the longstanding contributions of Pakistanis working in the UAE”.

Both sides reaffirmed their resolve to strengthen the fraternal, strategic, and economic partnership between their countries, the statement said.

They also reviewed ongoing defence cooperation and agreed to continue working closely to unlock new opportunities in trade, investment, technology, people-to-people ties and other areas, it added.

Past UAE visa issues

Visa rejections were also faced by Pakistani citizens in early July, which prompted Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to raise the issue with his UAE counterpart.

In a meeting on July 11, UAE Lt Gen Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan assured Naqvi of “full support” in expediting visas for Pakistani citizens as the Pakistani minister sought “relaxation in visa policies”.

In April, UAE Ambassador to Pakistan Hamad Obaid Ibrahim Salem Al-Zaabi announced that visa issues had been resolved and Pakistanis could now avail a five-year visa.

This came after the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis, in January, was told that some visas to the UAE had been “unofficially closed”.

Overseas Employment Promoter Aisam Baig had said the above, adding that the UAE government had reservations that Pakistanis on “visit visas, not work visas”, resort to begging in the country.

However, the committee’s chairman, Senator Zeeshan Khanzada, said there were “no restrictions on work visas” for Pakistanis travelling to the Gulf country.