ISLAMABAD: Foreign office spokesperson has categorically said that United Arab Emirates (UAE) has not imposed any new visa ban on Pakistanis.
Additional Interior Secretary Salman Chaudhry had told the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights that the UAE has not been issuing visas to Pakistanis and only a few visas had been issued lately and that is only to diplomats and those holding blue passports.
However, in a weekly press briefing on Friday, the FO spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi denied that any ban has been imposed on Pakistani nationals travelling to the UAE.
The Pakistani ambassador to the UAE, Shafqat Ali Khan, also denied any such ban, the FO spokesperson said.
He stated that the standing committee may have been briefed based on old records.
The UAE has not introduced any new restrictions on Pakistan, nor has it passed any new legislation regarding this matter, he said.
A senior diplomat at the UAE embassy, speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed social media claims of a visa ban. He told Dawn newspaper that “there’s no ban on visas for Pakistani citizens.”
Salem Mohammed Al Zaabi, the UAE’s newly appointed Ambassador to Pakistan, recently met Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, the federal minister for finance and revenue, to discuss visas and investment prospects.
It was also revealed that a newly launched UAE visa centre in Pakistan is now processing nearly 500 visas daily.
The Pakistani community is the second-largest expatriate group in the UAE, with around 1.7 million residents, mostly in Dubai and the Northern Emirates. During the 2023-24 financial year, 230,000 Pakistanis migrated to the UAE for jobs and business opportunities.
In July 2025, Pakistan and the UAE activated a visa waiver for holders of diplomatic and official passports.
