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Pakistan Embassy in the UAE on Thursday said the validity of machine readable passports (MRPs) can only be extended up to 20 days for people travelling to Pakistan due to an emergency.
“It is informed that according to the policy guidelines of the Ministry of Interior, the validity period of MRP (machine readable passport) can only be extended for a period of 15-20 days in emergency cases for travelling to Pakistan only,” the embassy said in a statement on its social media channels.
Currently, more than 1.6 million Pakistanis live and work in the UAE, the second highest number of foreign nationals in the Emirates after Indians, which account for around 3.4 million of the total population.
On Thursday, Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Pakistan’s ambassador in UAE, held Khuli Kachehri (open house) via Zoom meeting to discuss issues faced by the community and how to resolve them.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination has introduced a surveillance system across the country’s all airports to monitor passengers flying into the South Asian country following the threat posed by the new variant of the Coronavirus.
Under this new procedure, all passengers, including those flying from the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, will have to go through thermal screeners installed at the airports to detect and deal with the sub-variant of the virus.
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