In a surprising move, passengers holding passports issued from Punjab have been barred from traveling abroad for the first time from Karachi Airport, sources revealed on Wednesday.
According to reports, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has quietly implemented an unannounced travel policy, resulting in the offloading of several passengers over the past two days.
FIA officers have also been instructed to submit detailed reports of all offloaded passengers twice daily—morning and evening—to higher authorities.
In one instance, 57 passengers were offloaded from Saudi Airlines flight SV709, sources said. Among those barred from travel were 35 Umrah pilgrims and 22 individuals holding work visas.
All private and foreign carriers, including the national airline (PIA), have reportedly offloaded passengers belonging to Punjab, regardless of their travel purpose or visa type.
The unannounced policy has caused significant financial losses, as offloaded passengers’ airline tickets are being rendered void. According to sources, millions of rupees have been lost collectively in the past two days alone due to the sudden enforcement of this restriction.
