More than 10,000 Pakistanis travelled to the United Kingdom on student visas and later applied for asylum there.
During the meeting, DG FIA Dr Usman Anwar told National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior that people travelling abroad illegally were bringing a bad name to Pakistan. He said several countries, including those in the European Union, had raised the matter with Pakistan.
Dr Usman Anwar informed the committee that 580 Pakistanis went to Belarus but did not return. He also said that 10,000 Pakistanis applied for political asylum in the UK after travelling there on student visas.
According to the DG FIA, a new route for human smuggling through Malaysia and Uzbekistan has also emerged. He said that during 2025, 39,786 people attempting to travel abroad without documents were offloaded, while more than 3,000 people were stopped from travelling on the basis of the stop list and Interpol alerts.
He further told the committee that 7,000 Pakistanis travelled to Azerbaijan this year on visit visas and did not return. He added that 175 arrested Pakistanis had been brought back from Libya. The committee was also informed that there had been a 75 percent decrease in organised beggars and a 31 percent reduction in the use of fake documents.
Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry told the meeting that illegal immigration from Pakistan had decreased by 47 percent, and that this reduction had also been confirmed by Europe and the United States.
He said further facilities would be introduced in the coming days, while a new policy had also been prepared regarding lost passports.
Talal Chaudhry said if a person repeatedly loses passports, the matter is considered suspicious. He added that incidents of identity being sold occur across the world and every case of passport loss is investigated.
During the meeting, Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar briefed the committee on proposed reforms in criminal laws and said the matter should be discussed in detail after the budget.
He said laws that are 80 years old are not necessarily bad, adding that old laws are still effectively enforced in many countries. However, he said changes in laws are necessary in view of modern technology and new requirements.
The law minister said there had been no large-scale legal amendments after 1971 and 1991. He said amendments had been proposed to 55 laws related to the CrPC and that work on these reforms had been ongoing for the past three years.
Azam Nazeer Tarar said at least four days would be required for a detailed discussion on all amendments. He noted that many services had gone online, cases were also being registered online, and prominent criminal law lawyers had been included in the preparation of the proposed reform package.
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He further said that some proposed reforms were unnecessary, but overall the package had been prepared to improve the judicial system. He said the existing laws provide facilities to the accused, but there is not enough facilitation for the complainant. For this reason, comprehensive proposals are being brought before the committee in the form of a bill so they can become part of legislation.
