ISLAMABAD:
The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control on Thursday sought a detailed response from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) within a week to complaints about passengers disembarked from airports despite having valid travel documents.
The issue was raised during a committee meeting in Parliament chaired by Raja Khurram Nawaz, during which National Assembly MP Chaudhry Naseer Abbas Sidhu criticized “arbitrary actions of immigration officials” at airports.
Sidhu told the committee that Pakistani citizens with valid visas and complete legal documents were still being prevented from traveling without clear justification. “The poor spend large sums on plane tickets, but they are given them for no reason,” he said.
Questioning the legal basis on which FIA officials prevent passengers from boarding flights, he urged the government to formulate a transparent and clearly defined policy on offloading, arguing that passengers were currently stopped at the discretion of individual officers.
“Anyone who decides to stop is arrested without explanation,” the lawmaker told the committee, adding that the practice not only affected travelers and their families but also harmed the country’s foreign exchange inflows.
He highlighted the difficulties faced by overseas Pakistanis in obtaining passports and dealing with immigration authorities. He said many Pakistanis who settled abroad years ago and obtained residency documents in European countries continued to face unnecessary obstacles while traveling to and from Pakistan.
Terming issuance of passport as a fundamental right of every Pakistani citizen, Sidhu urged the authorities to minimize delays in the process. He added that reports suggested many applicants were struggling to obtain their passports in a timely manner.
“If someone re-applies for a passport, it should still be issued to them,” he said, adding that while penalties for repeat applications could be increased, undue delays were unacceptable. The committee asked the FIA to submit a full explanation at the next meeting.
