Undergraduate Pakistan Trek Will Proceed As Planned Ahead of Expected Trump Travel Ban

Thirty Harvard students will travel to Pakistan on Friday for the Harvard College Pakistani Students Association’s second annual Pakistan Trek as the Trump administration decides whether to include the country in a new travel ban policy expected this week.

The week-long Pakistan Trek, organized by the recognized undergraduate affinity group and independently funded, includes meetings with Pakistani political leaders — Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and, tentatively, current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Over spring break — while Trek attendees will be in Pakistan — Trump is expected to release a new travel ban, which is likely to include restrictions on travel from Pakistan, according to the New York Times. The ban is expected to mirror his 2017 policy, which affected non-U.S. citizen travelers from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

Though the majority of people from the listed countries were prevented from entering the U.S. under Trump’s 2017 ban, international students with F-1 visas, as well as U.S. citizens, were still able to travel to and return from affected countries.

Abdullah Shahid Sial ’27, one of the five trip organizers from Pakistan, said none of the trip’s other 25 attendees are from countries that would be impacted by a travel ban.

“Our organizing team is made up of five international Pakistanis,” Sial said. “Outside of this, we have 25 individuals who are not Pakistani citizens.”

In the event of a ban, Sial said he believed it was unlikely the five organizers would be affected because of their status as F-1 visa holders, which allows them to study in the U.S. at an accredited institution.

But he also said the organizers discussed the risk of encountering additional restrictions upon returning to Harvard, and concluded the trip would be worth it.

“That’s a risk we’re willing to take,” Sial said. “My main priority is to make sure the 25 people who went with us, they are set, they are safe, and they will be safe.”

But Silal warned that his predictions about future policies could “fully change in the next couple of hours.”

According to Shahmir Aziz ’25, another trip organizer and recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship, participants will visit Islamabad, Skardu, and Lahore, three major cities in Pakistan, and work with different organizations to aid local schools in the region.

In Skardu, the group will visit Pakistan’s mountainous regions, and their time in Lahore will have a historical, traditional, and cultural focus.

“All three of them are going to represent the three aspects of Pakistan that we want to show,” Aziz said.

“We’ve been working really hard on this, and we’re excited to finally get to take everyone to Pakistan,” he added. “Hopefully, they have a great experience and I hope it continues in the years to come.”

Ahead of the trip, the five organizers have met with administrators from the Harvard International Office to discuss their individual travel risks, but did not consult them on the trip itself, Sial said.

“I can imagine what they’ll say,” he said. “They’ll be like, ‘Oh, don’t go.’”

“I mean, you can’t do much as HIO,” Sial added. “They don’t have any jurisdiction over how Trump’s policy is going.”

The anticipated travel restrictions have been a cause of concern for many international students at Harvard since Trump was inaugurated in January.

But since Trump entered office, the HIO, which offers services for international students, has not issued specific guidance beyond recommending students “budget time ahead of classes resuming on March 24” in a Feb. 19 email about spring break.

The ban is likely to be announced by March 21, the deadline for the State Department and Department of Homeland Security to submit a report to the White House on countries to include.

Trip organizer Rauf Nawaz ’28 said that while the group is tracking changes to travel policies, there was too much uncertainty to make any specific preparations preemptively.

“We don’t know what’s exactly going to happen,” said Nawaz, a Crimson News editor. “We don’t want to create a panic or an emergency situation when there isn’t one.”

“Regardless of whatever happens,” he added, “we want to make sure that the Trek happens, and we’re doing our utmost best to make that happen.”

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.