Pakistan moves towards one-window airport clearance with e-gates, smart scanners

ISLAMABAD: In an apparent push to modernise border control and cut wait time for travellers, Pakistan appears to be moving towards a “one-window” airport clearance system using e-gates and smart scanners, with a joint strategy by the Ministries of Defence and Interior coming under detailed discussion on Wednesday.

The plan comes amid growing international passenger traffic and repeated complaints of congestion at major airports. In 2025, Pakistan handled 25.4 million domestic and international passengers, up 12 per cent year-on-year, according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data.

On Wednesday, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi chaired a high-level meeting to address the dual challenge of facilitating outbound passengers while strengthening checks against human smuggling.

The meeting was attended by Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry, Interior Secretary Muhammad Khurram Agha, Defence Secretary Lt Gen (Retd) Muhammad Ali, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) DG Dr Usman Anwar and other officials.

Officials agreed to ensure close coordination among all agencies at airports and to replace fragmented checks with a unified system, an official statement said.

“Unified checking on a single scanner by all institutions will save time and facilitate passengers,” Naqvi was quoted as saying, adding that the government was committed to reducing congestion and waiting times through interagency coordination.

During the meeting, it was decided that joint counters and a unified checking system would be introduced.

The statement also said that modern baggage and document scanners would be installed to speed up verification and improve detection. Further, e-gates that use biometric passport scanners and facial recognition were set to be rolled out, cutting average immigration clearance from 3–5 minutes to under 45 seconds per passenger, it said.

Meanwhile, progress on e-gate installation was also reviewed in the meeting.

The interior minister stressed that faster clearance must not weaken enforcement. According to the handout, data from the FIA showed over 1,200 human smuggling attempts were intercepted at airports in 2025.

An official said the phased rollout of modernisation was likely to start from Islamabad International Airport. Officials also said e-gates would be linked with the FIA’s exit control list, passenger name records, and Interpol databases to flag high-risk travellers in real time.

“Immigration and Anti-Narcotics Force checks separately can take 40 minutes at peak hours. A single window would be a huge relief,” said a travel operator.