Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi visited the Lahore airport on Tuesday, where he again asserted that passengers with “complete documents” were not being barred from travelling, state-run PTV News reported.

“No passenger with complete travel documents is being stopped from travelling, and they will not be stopped,” he said, adding that, however, passengers in possession of “incomplete or bogus documents will definitely not be allowed to travel”.

Naqvi’s assurance and warning follow recent reports of arbitrary offloading at airports of passengers travelling abroad. The reports prompted clarifications by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) that only passengers without complete and correct documents were being stopped from travelling.

The interior minister has also issued similar statements, saying that only those lacking genuine and complete documents were not being allowed to travel abroad.

During his visit to the Lahore airport today, he reiterated the same.

“No passenger who brings disrepute to the country can be allowed to travel,” he further stated, according to PTV News.

The state broadcaster reported that the interior minister also reviewed the immigration process and the system in place for linking passengers’ travel histories with their identity cards and passports at immigration counters.

“He appreciated the performance of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director Ali Zia and his team on the fast-track system,” the PTV News report said.

Moreover, he visited the immigration counters designated for Pakistanis returning from abroad and enquired from passengers how long the immigration process took.

Passengers expressed satisfaction with the immigration process, the report said, further quoting them as saying that the process was “completed in just two minutes”.

Recently, several incidents have been reported of travellers being offloaded from flights at various airports, despite possessing valid travel documents. The actions came after a crackdown on migrant smuggling following last year’s Greece boat tragedy that claimed several Pakistani lives.

Addressing the matter during a press conference in Lahore yesterday, Naqvi claimed that just 50-70 people were being offloaded daily across the country.

The minister reasserted that there could be some negligence on part of the FIA, but travellers having all necessary documents were not being barred from travelling abroad. He added that the action against travellers with insufficient documents was necessary as “we are trying to improve the ranking of our passport”.