ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday humanitarian aid continued to be delivered to the northwestern Khurram district where the blockade of a main highway since last month following sectarian clashes in the region has triggered a humanitarian crisis.
Kurram, a tribal district of around 600,000 where federal and provincial authorities have traditionally exerted limited control, has frequently experienced violence between its Sunni and Shia communities over land and power. Travelers to and from the town often ride in convoys escorted by security officials.
The latest feuding started on Nov. 21 when gunmen ambushed a vehicle convoy and killed 52 people, mostly Shias. The assault triggered road closures and other measures that have disrupted people’s access to medicine, food, fuel, education and work. Over 130 people have been killed in the fighting that has ensued after the convoy attack, according to police records.
The provincial and federal governments and the Edhi Foundation charity last week started sending medicines to the region via helicopters.
“On the instructions of Prime Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, the Cabinet Division helicopter has been allocated for the provision of medicines, transfer of patients and other relief activities in Parachinar,” Sharif’s office said in a statement.
Parachinar is the main town in Kurram and a main road that connects the region to Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has been blocked since sectarian fighting began late last month.
“The National Disaster Management Authority is carrying out this important relief operation to deliver medicines to Parachinar to meet the emergency medical needs of children, women and elderly people of Parachinar,” the PM’s office said.
On Wednesday morning, a government helicopter carrying 500 kilograms of medicines reached Parachinar and returned to Islamabad, the federal capital, with four patients.
“The second helicopter has left Islamabad for Parachinar this afternoon carrying another 500 kg of medicines and on its return, it will bring patients from Parachinar to Islamabad,” the PM’s office said.
Kurram police spokesman Riaz Khan told Arab News on Monday least 136 people had been killed in the violence since last month. If you added those who had died due to lack of access to hospitals and medicines following the road closures, the number reached at least 200, the police officer said.
Pakistani media widely reported on Wednesday at least 100 children has died in Kurram due to lack of access to medication and health facilities. 
The KP provincial government last week launched a helicopter service to evacuate people and transport aid and medicines to Kurran amid the closer of the Parachinar-Peshawar road.
The KP government also said last week authorities had decided to dismantle private bunkers — observation posts used in the fighting by both sides — and given a deadline of Feb. 1 for tribesmen in Kurram to handover heavy weapons. 
Local tribesmen have so far reportedly refused to surrender their weapons, citing concerns about their safety.

KARACHI: Pakistanis seeking work visas for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other countries are now required to produce police verification certificates, the director general of the Bureau of Emigration & Overseas Employment confirmed to Arab News this week.
The development comes amid recent media reports of a decline in UAE visas for Pakistanis and a decrease in overall overseas employment for nationals of Pakistan, allegedly due to their lack of respect for local laws and customs and for participating in political activities and sloganeering while abroad.
On Monday, the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development on Monday convened a special session at the Parliament House to deliberate what it described as the UAE’s “unofficial visa restrictions,” calling on the Pakistan government to keep the public informed about the real status of the issue. 
Last week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the UAE was taking steps to streamline visas for Pakistanis. The Gulf state’s consul general in Karachi, Dr. Bakheet Ateeq Al Remeithi, has recently said there was no visa ban on Pakistani nationals.
“This police verification is for work purposes, and it is also for other countries,” DG Bureau of Emigration, Muhammad Tayyab, told Arab News in an interview on Tuesday, adding that his statement in this regard to the Senate committee session only related to work visas.
“The media reporting on this matter, in my opinion, should have been a bit more cautious,” he said. “My department deals with people who go abroad for work. My department has nothing to do with people who are going on visits, personal visits or tours.”
Tayyab said he had informed the Senate committee that a large number of Pakistanis had visited the UAE during 2024.
“I made it very clear in the committee yesterday that if there were restrictions, then approximately more than 65,000 people would not have gone abroad this year,” he added.
Nadeem Sharif, a former chairman of the Travel Agents Association of Pakistan (TAAP), confirmed there was no police certificate requirement for UAE visit visas.
“There have been no such restrictions that those going to UAE on visit visas would require police clearance certificates. People have flown to the UAE yesterday and today [without them],” he told Arab News.
Addressing Monday’s Senate committee meeting as per a report published in Pakistan’s Geo News, Arshad Mahmood, the secretary of Overseas Pakistanis, said that while unskilled workers had faced delays in getting UAE visas, skilled laborers were receiving visas without problems.