KARACHI — The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has firmly dismissed reports claiming that passengers from Punjab and other provinces are being stopped from traveling abroad through Karachi airport, calling the allegations “baseless and misleading.”
In a statement issued on Wednesday, an FIA spokesperson clarified that no travel restrictions or provincial discrimination exist at Jinnah International Airport. “All passengers, regardless of their province, are being allowed to travel after completing the required immigration process,” the official said.
The spokesperson explained that only additional verification is being conducted in specific cases particularly for first-time travelers or individuals whose documentation raises questions. “The enhanced scrutiny is meant to protect innocent citizens from falling victim to human trafficking and agent mafias,” the statement added.
FIA officials revealed that such criminal networks often deceive people with false promises of overseas jobs or travel arrangements, only to exploit them later. To counter this, the agency has tightened its profiling procedures for outbound passengers, especially those departing from Karachi instead of their home province airports.
“Travelers who can justify their choice of Karachi as a departure point and provide proper documentation face no issues,” the spokesperson said.
However, the agency confirmed that 57 passengers including 35 Umrah pilgrims and 22 individuals with employment visas were offloaded from a flight earlier this week after failing to meet immigration criteria.
According to officials, the clearance process applies particularly to first-time travelers from other provinces. Passengers from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan may be asked to use nearby airports for their initial international trips, while repeat travelers will not face such scrutiny.
“This is not a ban it’s a preventive measure to ensure that no one is misled or exploited,” the FIA spokesperson emphasized. “Our goal is to make air travel safer, not more difficult.”
