Already a “mastermind of human trafficking” to Europe, a top Pakistani diplomat, Israr Husain, has now been accused for his alleged involvement in issuing visas to Pakistani citizens for Europe in exchange for bribes, media reports said.
The complaint was lodged by a senior Pakistani official who is also in charge of issuing visas. It is worth noting that Husain has held top ranks in the past, such as assistant secretary for Europe at the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad and ambassador at the diplomatic office in Prague, a position from which he had to resign following allegations of corruption, Difesa Online reported.
This incident has triggered speculations about whether Islamabad diplomats are carrying out a global scam of fake passports and visas for Europe. Pakistan has long been involved in such activities and therefore this is not the first incident of its kind.
These activities by Pakistanis are spread across various European countries so much so that the European Parliament had to intervene to sound an alarm on the pertinent issue, Difesa Online reported.
For Instance, in 2020, Member of European Parliament (MEP) Dominique Bilde accused Pakistan of leading a racket to grant falsified passports and visas. Already in 2012, the then High Commissioner for the United Kingdom in Islamabad, Adam Thomson, had called Pakistan “the world leader in counterfeiting visas.”
Furthermore, as per the data in 2021, a total of 4,000 Pakistani citizens were reported for trying to obtain passports using forged documents.