It was told in a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis, presided over by Aga Rafiullah, held here on Wednesday that 51,000 passengers were offloaded at Pakistani airports in this year after being found ineligible by immigration counter and majority of them were offloaded at Karachi and Lahore airports.
During the last few months, there have been a series of reports where passengers were was off-loaded from flights at airports after holding valid papers. These were part of the a swift response to sort of an anti-smuggling crackdown which was initiated after 2024’s Greece boat incident in which many Pakistanis lost their lives.
PM also constitutes committee to probe repeated off-loading of international passengers from flights The Prime Minister also announced the constitution of a committee to look into reports that the unloading has been done repeatedly and affected many people who held valid documents.
FIA DG Riffat Mukhtar Raja told that, “After verification of documents, online authentication, and data check up, passengers are de-boarded.”
Raja told the parliamentarian panel that of a total of over 66,000 passengers offloaded this year so far, 51,000 were held by FIA on account of incomplete or unverified papers.
Many of those offloaded did not have enough information about their course or university or their job abroad, he added.
@flySFO right now! The nightmare in the International terminal and employees just want away instead of trying to offload the jam 🤯 pic.twitter.com/7weKm7SeP5
— Natalya Shpolyansky (@NatShpol) December 14, 2025
“In most instances, passengers try to go through agents and base their plans on incomplete or inaccurate information,” the DG FIA had added.
The committee was also told that 180 FIA officials accused of involvement in corrupt practices were terminated, adding all major airports had been linked with NADRA online system to tighten immigration checking.
“No passenger cleared on political influence or VIP order,” he emphasized.
The official also told the legislators that cameras have been setup at immigration counters at airports with viewing being done from the operation centre.
The immigration system is being augmented with artificial intelligence, screening for cases that look sketchy in advance.”
Most offloaded passengers were of visit, Umrah and work visa category,” he added. In 8.5 million people from Pakistan travelled abroad this year and as many as 226 cases were registered on different charges.
“In the last three months, 450 people have been arrested for trying to enter into Iran illegally,” the DG FIA informed the committee.
He also disclosed that some Bangladeshis were apprehended while they were making attempts to travel to Europe illegally via Pakistan.
“Bangladeshi nationals travelling on Pakistani tourist visas were nabbed while enroute to Europe,” the DG FIA continued.
He also said 287 people were deported last year and 170 this year for using false documents.
The parliamentary panel was also informed that 24,000 accused of it had been deported from Saudi Arabia this year.
Secretary Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry said that $1 trillion investment is coming to Saudi Arabia under SAUDI VISION 2030, creating numerous job opportunities.
“If we can only have better training of skilled manpower, Pakistan can also avail of these opportunities,” he said.
The secretary informed the committee that in the last year as many as 451,000 Pakistanis had gone to Saudi Arabia and more than 500,000 Pakistani workers were sent to Saudi Arab in the going current year.
National Vocational and Technical Training Commission was “not working at all”, he said while officers sent there had been doing with temporary arrangements what should be done on the permanent basis.
Committee member Muhammad Ilyas Chaudhry said drivers have been given to community welfare attachés and asked how Grade 17–18 officers could be assigned drivers in Europe.
“More than 50pc of community welfare attaché have been given drivers,” he said, adding that whether the ministry new about the cost of giving a driver to Grade-17 officer in Europe?
Community welfare attaché are officers of the ministry of overseas Pakistanis, who are posted in foreign countries to facilitate Pakistani labour abroad and pursue their legitimate legal or financial interest.
“No passenger having complete travel documents is being prevented from travelling and they will not be stopped,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi had said earlier in the month, though he did mention that “if someone comes with incomplete or bogus documents we will definitely not let them travel”.
“No passenger who embarrasses the country can be allowed to leave,” he added, PTV News reported.
In November, the FIA said those were offloaded or denied boarding were only people without valid travel documents or believed by authorities to be linked with migrant smugglers.
The agency had also lodged criminal complaints immediately against those who made false claims on social media that passengers were being offloaded.
FIA Director General Riffat Mukhtar also admitted that reports of people being offloaded had been received from Lahore and Karachi airports and investigations were underway.
