News Desk
Pakistan’s government is grappling with a peculiar problem: it can’t seem to keep track of its people, even those on sacred journeys. On Friday, Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Muhammad Yousaf attempted to downplay his earlier claim that 40,000 Pakistani pilgrims had gone “missing” in the Middle East, blaming outdated paper records rather than mass disappearances.
The clarification, however, only underscores a deeper issue: Pakistan’s chronic inability to monitor its citizens, whether at home or abroad, revealing a state mired in bureaucratic disarray and technological lag. The controversy erupted after reports surfaced that 40,000 Pakistani Shia pilgrims, who traveled to religious shrines in Iran, Iraq, and Syria over the past decade, had either overstayed their visas or vanished entirely.
Mustafa Jamal Kazi, Director General of Immigration and Passports, told media that many were lured by job prospects in Iraq’s construction sector, while others exploited religious tourism for begging. The numbers are staggering, yet unsurprising in a country where governance often falters under the weight of inefficiency and corruption. Yousaf’s response was less an explanation than a deflection. He insisted the 40,000 figure reflected incomplete records, not lost citizens, and pointed to a new digital portal with QR-coded e-cards to track pilgrims in real time.
The system, he claimed, would restore transparency and prevent “misunderstanding or propaganda.” But the minister’s assurances ring hollow when Pakistan’s history of mismanagement is considered.
A nation that struggles to conduct a reliable census—its last one, in 2017, was widely disputed—hardly inspires confidence in its ability to count thousands of travelers abroad. The government’s broader reforms, including the abolition of the “Salar system” that allowed private group leaders to manage pilgrimages, aim to centralize oversight under the new Ziyarat Management Policy.
Licensed organizers will now be held accountable for ensuring pilgrims return. Yet these measures feel like belated patches on a system riddled with holes. Host countries like Iraq and Iran have long complained about undocumented Pakistani visitors, a problem that points to lax border controls and a failure to coordinate with foreign governments. Pakistan’s leaders are quick to tout “modern technology” as a fix, but digitizing records won’t address the root issues: a bureaucracy plagued by inefficiency and a culture of cutting corners.
Yousaf’s call for pilgrims to register by August 31 to avoid being flagged on “incomplete lists” assumes a level of compliance and infrastructure that Pakistan has yet to demonstrate. For a country that can’t accurately count its population—estimates range wildly from 230 to 250 million—the task of tracking pilgrims feels like a microcosm of a larger failure. The stakes are high.
Unaccounted citizens abroad tarnish Pakistan’s global image and strain diplomatic ties. At home, the inability to maintain basic records erodes public trust in a government already battling economic woes and political instability. Until Pakistan invests in robust systems and enforces accountability, it will continue to lose track of its people, whether they’re at home or praying at distant shrines.
