Holders of invalid, expired NICOPs barred from boarding flights to Pakistan: official

ISLAMABAD: Expired, cancelled or invalid National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) will not permit entry of Pakistanis living abroad into the country through flights to Pakistan, official sources said here Wednesday.

According to official sources, the government has immediately issued instructions to all zonal directors of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to communicate the new ruling to all airlines serving flights to Pakistan.

A government official said the issue of permitting passengers to travel with invalid NICOP had been there for many years and that a decision had been taken to put an end to it immediately.

“Passengers must be required to have a valid NICOP which must be verified by the airlines before permitting them to board a flight to Pakistan,” he said.

He further said that a passenger holding a foreign passport along with an invalid, expired or cancelled NICOP would not be permitted to board the flight for Pakistan without a valid Pakistani visa.

The official said that the new directive was not country specific but applied to all foreign nationalities traveling to Pakistan.

Meanwhile, a senior FIA official said that there already existed a law on valid travel documents and the latest directive was intended