The Champions Trophy started in Karachi on Wednesday (February 19) with host Pakistan playing New Zealand and lost tamely by 60 runs. Starting their campaign the next day at Dubai, India trampled Bangladesh, winning the contest with six wickets remaining. However, one thing was common in these two games and that was half filled stadia. Both the stadiums at Karachi as also at Dubai had empty stands galore.
For almost all global cricket championships organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the stadium is always full of fans often paying huge money in black to buy tickets. In the past, the fan following of various national teams has ensured that the stadia are choc a bloc, full to the brim, and overflowing wherever they go.
On Sunday (February 23), one of the keenest rivalries in the cricket arena, a match between India and Pakistan, is scheduled to be played in Dubai. As usual, as always, there is tremendous interest in the game and it is likely to be a houseful show at the stadium. However, the way things have unfolded over the last one week, it looks likely that there will be far fewer `Green Shirts’ (Pakistanis) in the stands than expected.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government is closely scrutinising applications from Pakistani fans for visas and rejecting a large number of them. This has sent jitters among the Pakistanis willing and wanting to be at Dubai for the grand show. As a result, fewer applications are being filed by the ordinary Pakistanis for getting visas for the match. On the other hand, all Indian fans who had applied for visas for the Sunday Dubai visit have got them quickly without any fuss, according to reports in the Pakistani newspapers and on TV channels.
All this obviously means that both on field and off-field, the Indians are winners, and Pakistanis losers.
Why this contrasting style has been adopted by the UAE authorities for fans of two rival teams that will play the match? Why Indian fans (citizens) are getting visas for asking and why Pakistani fans (citizens) are being kept on hold? Then being denied the document that will allow them to be in Dubai.
Well, the reason for this less than welcome attitude by the UAE officials towards Pakistanis is that they have often been found to be involved in criminal activities. Be it hooliganism, raising loud and bawdy slogans in public places or begging, Pakistanis have been found involved in these and more. After watching this unruly behaviour of the Pakistanis over the past few years, the UAE authorities have now issued clear instructions to get all visa applications of Pakistanis vetted thoroughly. Meaning police verifications
Pakistanis failed to see it coming though the warning signals were there for the past couple of months. In late December 2024, a panel of the Pakistani Senate was informed that all Pakistani travellers to the UAE needed to be vetted and verified by the police. Travel agents were also instructed in this regard. This information was conveyed to the Pakistani lawmakers during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development.
The Senate members expressed indignation at the UAE’s “unofficial visa restrictions’’ but an official conveyed it to them that “no Pakistanis travelling to UAE will now be allowed without police verification”.
In November, a month before that, in a TV interview, the Consul General of UAE in Karachi, Dr Bakheet Ateeq Alremeithi, had said that Pakistanis may face “visa rejections due to negative social media activities’’. At that time too, some politicians had raised a ruckus but the Federal government had asked them to cool down as the UAE was a major benefactor of Pakistan.
The large-scale visa rejections of Pakistani citizens will mean that fans of the country hosting championship may not be able to attend some of the key matches of the tournament. These key matches are those played by the Indian team with its rivals, including Pakistan, the host country.
There is not much that the Federal government of Pakistan or the sports board can do for the Pakistani fans.
In a press briefing last week, when confronted with a question pertaining to rejected visas, a spokesperson of the Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) insisted that there was no ban on Pakistanis in the UAE. “There are so many Pakistanis already travelling; all flights are booked,” he said.
Issuance of visa is the sovereign prerogative of a country, he added, clearly downplaying the problems Pakistani fans are facing in getting the visas for Dubai matches. This may mean few fans in the Dubai when India and Pakistan teams face one another on Sunday.
