Justice Bajwa rules that a paper trail is now a “substantive safeguard” for civil liberty
LAHORE:
Immigration officials can no longer restrain passengers on verbal orders alone, the Lahore High Court (LHC) has ruled, striking down the practice as a violation of fundamental rights.
The verdict delivers a sharp legal check to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) just days after it revealed the scale of its current dragnet: 66,154 travellers offloaded in 2025.
Presiding over the Multan Bench, Justice Ali Zia Bajwa issued a two-page interim order declaring that providing written reasons for a travel ban is not a mere formality but a “substantive legal safeguard”.
During the hearing of a petition challenging one such offloading, the court pressed the state’s law officer for the specific grounds behind the action. The officer admitted that no written reasons existed on the record.
Read: Government panel to investigate offloading of travellers
Transparency and the right to legal redress depend on a paper trail, the court observed, warning that arbitrary curbs on personal liberty violate the principles of natural justice. “Any action curtailing personal liberty must have a clear legal basis,” Justice Bajwa wrote, ordering authorities to furnish the petitioner with a written explanation before the next hearing.
FIA Offloading Statistics
These judicial strictures land amidst a massive enforcement drive. Testifying before the National Assembly Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis earlier this week, FIA Director General Riffat Mukhtar defended the agency’s vigilance, citing the offloading of over 66,000 passengers this year.
Broken down, the figures paint a picture of aggressive border control. Approximately 51,000 individuals were stopped due to the “questionable veracity” of their documents, covering work, tourist and Umrah visas.
Read more: 66,154 air travellers offloaded this year, FIA tells NA body
External diplomatic pressure appears to be driving this scrutiny. The DG noted that 56,000 Pakistani beggars had been deported from Saudi Arabia recently, a trend he identified as a primary trigger for the tighter screening. He further informed the committee that the United Arab Emirates had imposed visa restrictions, while illegal migration routes to Africa, Cambodia and Thailand were seeing increased traffic.
Government Inquiry
Amid mounting complaints that valid visa holders are being caught in this net, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has intervened. A high-level committee, led by Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Chaudhry Salik, is now investigating the issue.
Comprising representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NADRA and the Pakistan Digital Authority, the panel is tasked with standardising verification processes to ensure genuine travellers are not harassed.
