{"id":17327,"date":"2025-12-17T22:48:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T17:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/?p=17327"},"modified":"2025-12-17T22:48:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T17:48:25","slug":"na-standing-committee-seeks-sop-red","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/2025\/12\/17\/na-standing-committee-seeks-sop-red\/","title":{"rendered":"NA Standing Committee seeks SOP, Redressel Mechanism as AirPort Off-Loading Surge: FIA Reports 66,154 Cases in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

NA Standing Committee seeks SOP, Redressel Mechanism as AirPort Off-Loading Surge: FIA Reports 66,154 Cases in 2025 \u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Islamabad: (News Pulse) The Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development has directed the Ministry of Interior, the Federal Investigation Agency<\/a> (FIA) and the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis to immediately formulate and publicly notify a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and a complaints\/redressal mechanism for passengers off-loaded at airports, amid a sharp rise in such incidents.<\/p>\n

The direction was issued during a meeting of the Committee, chaired by Syed Rafiullah, held in the Constitution Room of Parliament House. The Committee examined two key issues: the increasing number of passengers being prevented from boarding flights, and the performance and future expansion of the Community Welfare Attach\u00e9 (CWA) network.<\/p>\n

Briefing the Committee, Director General FIA informed members that 66,154 passengers were off-loaded in 2025, almost double the 35,000 reported last year. He said that approximately 51,000 cases involved doubts over the authenticity or intent of travel documents, mainly related to work, tourist and Umrah visas. The FIA maintained that strict enforcement was necessary to curb human trafficking, illegal migration and organised begging networks, which continue to damage Pakistan\u2019s international image.<\/p>\n

The DG FIA disclosed that 56,000 Pakistani beggars were recently deported from Saudi Arabia, while the UAE has imposed additional visa restrictions. He also pointed to emerging illegal migration trends towards Africa and Europe, as well as the misuse of tourist visas for countries such as Cambodia and Thailand.<\/p>\n

While appreciating FIA\u2019s enforcement efforts, Committee members stressed that genuine travellers must have access to a swift and transparent remedy if wrongly off-loaded. The Committee therefore directed that the SOP and complaints mechanism be clearly displayed at all immigration counters, including contact details and an online complaint option.<\/p>\n

Members were also informed that a risk-analysis unit has been established within FIA and that an \u201cIMMI\u201d mobile application is under development to improve pre-departure screening and real-time monitoring at immigration counters. The Committee urged immediate system interoperability between FIA, Protectorate and E-Protector platforms to ensure verification and \u201cok-to-board\u201d checks before passengers reach airports.<\/p>\n

The Committee also reviewed the performance of the Community Welfare Attach\u00e9 network. The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis reported that CWAs in the Gulf region handled over 55,000 welfare cases during 2025, including more than 30,000 assisted repatriations and emergency travel documents, over 3,400 death-related cases, and thousands of prison visits and legal-aid interventions.<\/p>\n

While commending these efforts, the Committee noted persistent challenges, including passport confiscation by employers, resistance in recovery of dues, legal limitations in host countries, language barriers, and weak outreach to remote labour camps. Members stressed the need for stronger bilateral engagement and enhanced in-mission capacity.<\/p>\n

The Committee directed the Ministry to submit station-wise performance returns for all Gulf-region CWAs, along with staff details and resource requirements, and to present a prioritized plan for expansion to new CWA stations.<\/p>\n

Chairman Syed Rafiullah emphasized the need to balance enforcement with fairness, stating: \u201cThere must be a clear mechanism for redressal of Pakistanis who are wrongly off-loaded. Enforcement without an accessible remedy harms both people and Pakistan\u2019s reputation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The meeting was attended by MNAs Zulfiqar Ali Bhatti, Erum Hamid, Mah Jabeen Khan Abbasi, Saeeda Jamshid, Dr Mehreen Razzaq Bhutto, Zulfiqar Ali Behn, Muhammad Ilyas Choudhary, and others, along with senior officials from the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development and the Federal Investigation Agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NA Standing Committee seeks SOP, Redressel Mechanism as AirPort Off-Loading Surge: FIA Reports 66,154 Cases in 2025 \u00a0 Islamabad: (News Pulse) The Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development has directed the Ministry of Interior, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis to immediately formulate and publicly notify a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2297,2298],"tags":[3663,3664],"class_list":["post-17327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-pakistan","tag-na-standing-committee-fia-reports-syed-rafiullah","tag-overseas-pakistanis"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17327"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17330,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17327\/revisions\/17330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}