The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has not been issuing visas to most Pakistanis, according to a senior interior ministry official’s new statement at a parliamentary panel. During a Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights meeting, Additional Interior Secretary Salman Chaudhry said the the country was nearly subjected to a passport ban, Pakistan’s newspaper Dawn reported this week.
Pakistan escapes UAE-directed passport ban
Despite both countries sharing deep ties, Chaudhry revealed that the Gulf nation was already issuing visas solely to blue and diplomatic passport holders. Similarly, Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri, who heads the Senate committee on human rights, backed the claims in her statement to Dawn, adding that only a few visas had been issued in recent time, that too “after much difficulty.”
Zehri further shared that current visa freeze had been fuelled by fears about foreign nationals going to the UAE and “getting involved in criminal activities.”
On the same page of things, the additional interior secretary had warned at the aforementioned meeting, “If a ban is imposed, getting it removed would be difficult,” as per the Pakistani media report.
UAE embassy official responds to claims of Pakistani ‘ban’
Given the current chatter around the issue, quite a few social media users presumed that Pakistanis had been banned from being granted visas altogether.
Consequently, a senior official at the UAE embassy dispelled these concerns by telling Dawn “there’s no ban on visa for Pakistani citizens.”
Pakistan-UAE’s commitment to strengthening strategic ties
The UAE’s newly-appointed Ambassador to Pakistan, Salem Mohammed Al Zaabi, recently met Pakistan’s federal minister for finance and revenue, Sen. Muhammad Aurangzeb, according to a social media post by Pak’s Ministry of Finance.
During their interaction, the UAE official shared “major UAE visa facilitation reforms for Pakistanis,” which included the provisions for online visa processing, E-visas without passport stamping and faster system-to-system linkages.
The post shared on X on Thursday further detailed that a recently launched UAE visa centre in Pakistan was processing nearly 500 visas daily.
A large Pakistani population already lives and works in the UAE, with nearly diaspora from the South Asian country making for the second largest expatriate community in the UAE after Indians. According to Global Media Insight’s UAE population statistics 2025, Pakistani nationals’ population stands 1.9 million in the UAE.
And so, discussions emphasising the need to boost bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, and cultural ties between both countries were inevitable.
“Minister Aurangzeb briefed the Ambassador on Pakistan’s improving economic indicators – stable reserves, declining inflation, stronger currency outlook, and rising remittances from the UAE,” the Pakistani government’s SNS post said.
“Pakistan and the UAE agreed to continue working closely to unlock new opportunities in trade, investment, finance, technology, defence, and people-to-people ties.”
🇵🇰🤝🇦🇪 Pakistan & UAE Commit to Deepening Strategic Economic Partnership
— Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan (@Financegovpk) November 27, 2025
The UAE’s newly appointed Ambassador to Pakistan, H.E. Salem M. Salem AlBawab Al Zaabi, called on Federal Minister for Finance & Revenue Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb today in Islamabad.
Both sides reaffirmed… pic.twitter.com/gCLcvrXLPp
