PCB spokesperson says the board has spoken to the concerned authorities, requested them to facilitate valid ticket-holders.
Waqar Ahmed, a Pakistani national based in Qatar, was among the lucky ones. In the online crowd of desperate fans, he managed to secure three tickets for the eagerly awaited Pakistan-India Champions Trophy clash, scheduled for February 23.
It was destiny, and money, of course, because the tickets were sold out within an hour of going up online. When the excitement and fervour settled in, Ahmed and his friends began working on their visa applications.
For its 2025 edition, Pakistan was set to host the Champions Trophy. Preparation commenced in full swing and everything was going as planned — stadium renovations, security arrangements and the opening-closing ceremonies. But what is cricket without some drama?
Only three months before the tournament, the Indian government decided to not allow their team to tour Pakistan. Henceforth began a painfully long silence, until it was finally announced in December that Dubai — which has of late emerged as a ‘neutral’ destination for India-Pakistan fixtures — would host all of India’s matches of the Champions Trophy.
And so, most fans, including Ahmed, began to scramble for a place in the stands of the Dubai International Stadium to watch the high-octane India-Pakistan contest.
Tough luck or more?
Unfortunately, Ahmed and his friends were not lucky enough to do that, despite securing tickets. He applied for the UAE visa on February 4 and received a rejection the same evening.
“I had applied for the visa under the category of GCC residence — people who live in the Gulf Cooperation Council member states — but my application was rejected without any reasons mentioned,” he told Dawn.com. “I tried to contact UAE immigration officials through call and email but never heard back from them.”
In Islamabad, Nasir Chaudhry, who works in the energy sector, narrated a similar experience. After the schedule for the matches was revealed, he was working his fingers to the bone to secure a UAE visa.
“Before this, we were already facing visa issues even for our official commitments scheduled in Dubai,” he recalled. “But for the love of the game, the passion for India-Pakistan high-octane clashes and being an aficionado of the willow and the ball, I wanted to try hard to be in Dubai.”
Another reason that he highlighted for the excitement was that Dubai was a “plausible option” for Pakistanis when it came to neutral venues. However, to Chaudhry’s dismay, his visa and that of nearly all of his friends were rejected without any reason.
“All of this has been an unfortunate experience and doesn’t help sports enthusiasts and fans in travelling to see their teams and matches,” he said, regretting that India continued to use cricket as a “geopolitical tool”.
“Had their team been here, I might have climbed a pole to watch the India-Pakistan game even if that would have entailed the same risk as travelling in a rocky boat,” the cricket fan added.
Likewise, Nasir Jamal, a cricket enthusiast who hails from Hunza, travelled down to Karachi last month only for a visa. She returned home earlier in February after being rejected.
No entry!
Concerns regarding the rejection of UAE visas, particularly for Pakistani applicants, have been expressed for some months now. Ali Imran, a resident of Karachi, applied for the UAE visit visa in December with hopes of attending the Coldplay concert. Even after having what he termed a strong travel history, he faced rejection.
Travel agents also recounted witnessing a similar pattern where despite meeting all requirements, visa applications were being rejected, excluding a few exceptions.
A Karachi-based travel agent told Dawn.com that more recently, only four-day tourist visas applied through airlines, the Emirates in this case, were being approved. But it was subject to certain conditions, one of them being flying with the airline.
“But there is a 30 per cent rejection ratio even in this situation,” he said, adding that the applicant has to first purchase a ticket and then apply for the visa. In case of rejection, there was a $60 (Rs16,752) ticket cancellation cost and the Rs30,000 paid for the visa went to waste.
This was one reason that has discouraged fans like Umar Naseem from even applying for the visa. “We are not willing to waste all this money only for the visa to be rejected,” he said.
Earlier this month, Dawn.com also ran a survey asking people if they were travelling to Dubai for the Champions Trophy. The results showed that a staggering majority were not, of which around 15pc claimed they did want to, but that their visa applications had been rejected.
But why?
According to reports, the UAE authorities have lately increased the scrutiny of Pakistanis arriving in the country due to their alleged involvement in crime and unlawful activities, like begging. On December 23, a Senate panel was informed that all Pakistani travellers to the UAE needed to be vetted and verified by the police. Travel agents were also instructed in this regard.
In another meeting on Jan 9, the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development was told that there were “no restrictions on work visas” for Pakistanis travelling to the UAE. It further learnt that visas to the UAE had been “unofficially closed” and its government had reservations that Pakistanis, on visit visas, beg in the country.
On the other hand, during an interview with Geo News in November last year, the Consul General of UAE in Karachi, Dr Bakheet Ateeq Alremeithi, had revealed that Pakistanis may be facing visa rejections due to negative social media activities.
Alremeithi also stated that there had been complaints regarding the conduct of certain Pakistani social media influencers in the UAE, especially on platforms such as TikTok, resulting in dissatisfaction from the UAE government and prompting stricter visa regulations that have raised concerns for Pakistani travellers. He also clarified that there was no ban on UAE visas for Pakistani nationals.
Dawn.com reached out to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the UAE but didn’t hear back from them until the filing of this report.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Envoy to the UAE Faisal Niaz Tirmizi said that the Pakistan embassy in the United Arab Emirates was fully aware of the enthusiasm of cricket fans who wish to travel to Dubai to support their team during the Champions Trophy.
“While the issuance of visas falls under the jurisdiction of the host country’s immigration authorities, the Embassy remains committed to facilitating Pakistani nationals in every possible way,” he said.
“Pakistan and the UAE enjoy strong bilateral relations, and we are confident that any challenges faced by Pakistani cricket fans will be resolved,” Ambassador Tirmizi added.
What is Pakistan doing?
All this means that fans of the very country hosting the Champions Trophy would not be able to attend some of the key matches of the tournament. Ironic, right? So what is the government and the sports board doing for them?
In a press briefing last week, when confronted with a question pertaining to UAE visa issues, the Foreign Office spokesperson insisted that there was no ban on the same. “There are so many Pakistanis already travelling; all flights are booked,” he said.
Issuance of visa is the sovereign prerogative of a country, the FO added.
Separately, a Pakistan Cricket Board spokesperson said: “The PCB has already spoken with the concerned authorities and has requested them to entertain valid ticket-holders by facilitating them with visas.”
Dawn.com also reached out to PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi for further information but didn’t receive any response.
Additional input from Abdullah Mohmand
Header image: A packed Dubai International Stadium during the Women’s T20 World Cup. — ICC
- Desk Reporthttps://foresightmags.com/author/admin/
- Desk Reporthttps://foresightmags.com/author/admin/
- Desk Reporthttps://foresightmags.com/author/admin/
- Desk Reporthttps://foresightmags.com/author/admin/
