Pakistani lawmaker and former speaker of the National Assembly Asad Qaiser has alleged discriminatory treatment against Pakistani travellers, including himself, at a hotel in the United Arab Emirates after their flight was cancelled.
He claimed that after the flight was cancelled, an announcement was made saying that passport holders from India and America would be accommodated.
Qaiser, a member of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI), took to X and termed the behaviour towards Pakistanis as ‘extremely inappropriate’ as he called on Pakistan’s government to use diplomatic channels to take up the matter with Emirati authorities.
“I was traveling myself, and the behavior shown there was extremely inappropriate. Our flight was canceled, we wanted to stay in a hotel, but their attitude toward us Pakistanis was not good, ” he said.
Giving details of the incident, Qaiser said that announcement was made that only passport holders from India and America would be accommodated. Qaiser shared a video clip of his address in the National Assembly where he mentioned the alleged incident. Though he did not give exact details on the flight that or the hotel where the alleged discrimination took place, he did mention that the flight was cancelled on the day of ‘attack’, referring to the missile strikes and drone strikes during Iran-US war.
Pakistani passport ranks 102 on Henley Passport Index 2026 and is among the lowest. The discriminatory behaviour against Pakistani passport holders was something that Pakistani actor Saba Qamar also talked about. Qamar made her Bollywood debut in 2017 in film Hindi Medium, opposite Irrfan Khan. In an interview in 2018, she mentioned the humiliating experience of being frisked at international airports because of her Pakistani passport.
She mentioned an incident while she was travelling with the Indian crew to Georgia during the shooting of Hindi Medium and was stopped and investigated, while the Indian crew wasn’t stopped.
“We boast about Pakistan. We say Pakistan is this and that. But when you go out of the country and the way we are checked, I can’t tell you. I feel so humiliated the way I am frisked. I remember I want for a shoot in Tbilisi (Capital of Georgia) and my entire Indian crew was allowed to go. But I was stopped because of my Pakistani passport. I was investigated and they took my interview and then they let me go,” she said in an interview which later went viral on social media.