ISLAMABAD: In what appears to be an unprecedented admission of helplessness, a parliamentary panel on Wednesday failed to utter a single word against Dubai authorities for stopping issuance of visas to Pakistani citizens for the last one year without citing any valid reason.
Like the other members of the committee, a visibly helpless Senator Zeeshan Khanzada who was presiding over the meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis, remained tight-lipped despite receiving numerous complaints from the expatriates against the “highhandedness” of the UAE authorities for “persecuting” Pakistani citizens who either intend to go to the UAE or have been living there for several years.
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A member of the committee, who declined to be named, told Business Recorder that the lawmakers, who are supposed to press for issuance of UAE visas, are helpless as they themselves have got UAE visas which compel them to stay “neutral”. “They’ve nothing to do with the visa of an ordinary Pakistani who wants to go Dubai for better opportunities or a laborer, who is suffering due to constant visa rejections. These MPs are afraid as their own [Dubai] visas will be cancelled if they raised the visa issue,” he lamented.
At the onset of the meeting, not a single member raised the issue of UAE’s visa ban on Pakistani by the UAE as majority of them either remained completely tight-lipped or some of them proposed to hold an in-camera meeting to discuss the issue. At one point, the chairman of the committee even blamed the international media of misreporting the controversy over the UAE visa ban on Pakistanis.
Another member of the committee on condition of anonymity told this correspondent that “it is something beyond our domain as we all have UAE visas”, adding, “the issue of visa ban can only be resolved if the people at the helm of affairs – either the prime minister or the army chief – take up the issue with the rulers of the UAE.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024