Speaking to a Dubai-based English newspaper, Maj. Gen. Nasser Al-Awadi Al-Menhali, assistant undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior for Naturalization, Residency and Ports Affairs, cited security concerns as reasons for the drastic decision. He said the decision was binding on all Pakistanis residing in other GCC member states, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. He suggested that the move was aimed at stopping circulation of fake passports.

The decision also affects Pakistani expatriates already in the UAE who plan to apply for a new visa after canceling their existing visas in order to change jobs or sponsors. “Those who apply for a new visa should have an electronic passport,” Al-Menhali was quoted as saying in the daily Gulf News on Wednesday.

According to the report, the decision will not affect the renewal of residence visas by Pakistanis in the Emirates who currently hold older passports. “Pakistanis in the UAE can renew their residence visa until the expiry of their manual passports,” Al-Menhali said. “But they have to get a machine-readable passport while they are renewing the manual passport.”

Up until last month, any Pakistani holding a handwritten passport and working as a professional in Saudi Arabia could travel to Dubai or Abu Dhabi and procure an on-arrival visitor visa at the airport. Now, however, airlines have been told to bar Pakistanis with handwritten passports from UAE-bound flights.

Pakistani expatriates in Saudi Arabia, who travel regularly to Dubai, said the UAE is within its rights to take any decision that it deems fit and in its national interest. However, the new rule should have been widely publicized in the media before taking effect. “No one knew about this rule until Arab News talked about it after talking to those who were directly affected,” said Shahzaman Khan, an electronic engineer. “Even our embassy was unaware of the problem.”

The Pakistan Embassy in Riyadh and the Pakistan Consulate in Jeddah have been issuing machine-readable, electronic-coded passports for years now, but Pakistani expatriates say they invariably take more than two weeks.

“I had a manual passport, and when it expired I went to the embassy to get an electronic one. They said it would take 15 days for it to come back from Pakistan,” said Minhaj Sayeed, a Riyadh-based Pakistani businessman. “The officer said a manual one could be issued the same day, so I went in for the old-style passport. Now, however, it is useless because I have to keep traveling to Dubai every month for my business.”