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

He 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 currently, the UAE was only issuing visas to blue and diplomatic passport holders.

Separately, Senator Sameena Mumtaz Zehri, who heads the Senate committee on human rights, also confirmed the interior ministry official’s remarks to Dawn.

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.

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