ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Shiite pilgrims will not be able to individually travel to Iraq from next year to visit holy sites, the country’s interior minister announced on Monday, following his meeting with counterparts from Iran and Iraq.
Naqvi said this after attending a tri-nation conference, requested by Islamabad, in Tehran to discuss issues relating to thousands of Pakistani Shiite Muslims, who travel annually to Iran and Iraq.
The conference concluded with an agreement to establish a joint working group to oversee coordination and operational matters, ensuring safe and seamless travel of the pilgrims to the two countries.
“From January 1, 2026, we will not be allowing any Pakistani to leave for Iraq without zaireen [pilgrims] group organizer, which means that we will register people who will be allowed to take the groups to Iraq,” Naqvi said in televised comments after the conference.
Last month, Pakistan evacuated over 260 nationals from Iraq and another 450 Pakistanis who had been stranded in Iran during the Tehran-Israeli conflict, according to the country’s foreign ministry. There was no confirmation of the number of evacuees who had traveled legally and those who had been staying in the two countries illegally.
The group organizers will be bound to bring back all pilgrims going with them, according to the Pakistani interior minister. The move is aimed at discouraging overstay of Pakistani pilgrims in Iraq.
“The people who are overstaying there, the people who have started working there, we need to stop this,” Naqvi said, adding they would need support from Iran and Iraq to implement the decision.
