By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Dual-national Pakistanis living abroad will no longer be permitted to board flights to Pakistan if they are carrying an invalid, expired, or cancelled National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis, according to officials who said the government has ordered airlines to begin verifying the documents before passengers reach the gate.
The Federal Investigation Agency has instructed its zonal directors across the country to notify every airline flying into Pakistan of the new requirement, according to a government official who described the change as long overdue. The official said carriers had for years permitted travellers to board with identification that was no longer valid, a practice authorities have now decided to end.
“Airlines should be instructed to verify the validity of NICOPs prior to boarding and refuse carriage to any passenger presenting an invalid, expired or cancelled NICOP,” the official said.
Passengers who arrive at check-in with a foreign passport and an expired or otherwise invalid NICOP will be turned away unless they can produce a valid Pakistani visa, the official added. The rule is not aimed at any single country of origin. It applies uniformly, officials said, to travellers boarding flights from anywhere in the world.
A senior FIA official said the requirement itself is not new — the underlying law governing valid travel documents has long been on the books — but that the directive represents a push for stricter, more consistent enforcement. That instruction has also gone out to immigration checkpoints, the official said, so that the standard is applied the same way at every point of entry.
Officials framed the change as part of a broader alignment with how the government already treats other expired identification. An expired computerised national identity card, or CNIC, or an expired NICOP already triggers consequences elsewhere in the bureaucracy, cutting off access to banking services, mobile SIM registration, and property transactions. Airport enforcement, officials said, brings travel documentation in line with that existing standard.
“The FIA has been tasked with monitoring compliance at airports to ensure airlines implement the verification requirement before boarding,” the official said.
The announcement drew a mixed but largely favourable response from members of the Pakistani diaspora, many of whom said tighter enforcement was reasonable in principle but worried about the practical fallout for travellers caught off guard.
“Many Pakistanis only realise their NICOP has expired when they’re at the airport,” said Muhammad Riaz Chaudhary, a Pakistani national living in Heidelberg, Germany. He said the government should consider offering an emergency extension or an expedited renewal option for travellers who discover the problem at the last minute, to prevent the kind of hardship that could leave a passenger stranded before a flight. “The government should provide an emergency extension or expedited renewal to avoid genuine hardship,” he said.
The rollout of the policy was followed almost immediately by a wave of confusion, prompting the government to issue a clarification aimed at correcting what officials described as inaccurate reports circulating online and in some media outlets.
A government spokesperson said that claims suggesting all British passport holders would be barred from entering Pakistan under the new NICOP rules were false. Overseas Pakistanis travelling on foreign passports, the spokesperson said, will continue to be admitted into the country as long as they hold a valid NICOP. Only those whose cards have expired, been cancelled, or are otherwise invalid will need to secure a Pakistani visa in advance.
The spokesperson said the instructions apply equally to passengers arriving from Britain, the United States, countries across Europe, and elsewhere — anyone, regardless of nationality, who does not hold a valid NICOP.
Under the revised guidance, any passenger holding a foreign passport alongside an expired, invalid, or cancelled NICOP must obtain a Pakistani visa before boarding. Airlines have been directed not to permit such passengers to board without either a valid visa or a valid Pakistani passport, and officials said no exceptions will be granted to travelers who do not meet those conditions.
The spokesperson attributed much of the public confusion to what was described as a spread of inaccurate information following the initial announcement, and reiterated that the restriction does not affect passengers who hold a valid NICOP. Those travelers, the spokesperson said, may continue to fly to Pakistan on their foreign passports under the existing rules, unchanged.
Airline station managers have been directed to brief their staff on the new requirements and to make sure passengers are informed of the rules before they attempt to board.
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