Dubai: Prominent Pakistani Islamic scholar Maulana Tariq Jameel, who was offloaded from a flight to Canada on Wednesday due to delay in security clearance, has finally flown to Toronto on Friday morning.
Maulana Jameel along with his wife and son were re-booked on Emirates flights, which left Dubai for Toronto at 9.55am on Friday morning.
“Everything went smoothly and Maulan Jameel left for Canada without any issue,” said one of his close friends.
Explaining the issue of delay in security clearance, he said that Maulana Jameel was offloaded on Wednesday from flight to Toronto because he could not get security clearance until the departure of the flight. “We came to know that the delay in security clearance was due to change of his passport. Maulana got his new passport after the issuance of Canadian visa and that led to delay in security clearance because passport number was not matching,” he said, adding that the airline staff was very cooperative and took extra care of Maulana and made sure this time that he got clearance well in time.
He got new passport because all the pages were full and it was necessary to have new passport for travel.
Maulana Jameel who has millions of followers around the world has gone to Canada on a private visit.
Earlier, Maulana Jameel categorically denied media reports that he was going to Canada with famous cricketer Shahid Afridi to attend a fundraising event for Afridi’s charity foundation.
“Media reports based on a tweet by Afridi’s friend are wrong, as Maulana Jameel met Afridi only at the airport and he has no plans to attend his charity event in Toronto,” said one of his close friends who was at the airport to see him off.
He told Gulf News that it was very unfortunate that media published and telecast wrong news based on a tweet from some unknown person without confirming the facts with Maulana Jameel.
Maulana Jameel and his family members were given a complimentary hotel stay by the airline in Dubai and were also booked on the next flight to Toronto on Friday.
“It is quite normal for passengers to get offloaded from Canada and US bound flights due to delays in security clearance,” said an airline official on condition of anonymity.
