People-to-People contact: Pakistan, India ope-rationalize visa agreement

In yet another move to promote people-to-people, Pakistan and India have ope-rationalized a new visa regime from December 14, interior ministers of the two countries say. The new visa regime would become operational from January 15, 2013, state media has reported.

Thousands of divided families in both countries say that they still face a lot of problems to get visas and the long-delay usually deprive them of visiting relatives in time.

The agreement was inked in New Delhi on Friday during the visit of Pakistan of Interior Minister Rehman Malik. At a launching ceremony the Indian Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde termed the operationalization as historic and in the larger interest of people from both sides, especially the coming generations.

Rehman Malik said the new visa regime is an achievement of both the governments of India and Pakistan, which continued their efforts to achieve the goal.

The Minister said there were so many restrictions and formalities in the visa system, but “I appreciate leaderships of both the countries for their interest in new visa regime and to strengthen the bilateral ties.”

He said to facilitate Indian nationals at Wagah, government of  Pakistan has provided enhanced facilities such as increased number of immigration and custom counters, setting up of a dispensary and complementary drive from Wagah to Lahore.

Rehman Malik said, “The time has come to forget the past, we need to move forward for peace and prosperity and make joint efforts against terrorism and remove all hurdles in the way of our friendship.”

Sushil Kumar Shinde expressed the hope that the perpetrators of Mumbai blast would be brought to justice.

Malik said he had come to India with a message of peace from President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and people of Pakistan as this was a way forward. “We should forget the past for the sake of coming generations as through joint efforts for peace we can bring stability and progress.”

Rehman Malik said both the countries are facing terrorism, adding “we do not want the incidents like, 9/11, Mumbai blast, Samjhota Express, Babri Mosque etc. We just want peace and we are concentrating on that.”

On the issue of Mumbai blasts, he said the perpetrators of the incident would be brought to justice, adding that trial against seven accused was continuing in Pakistani courts and “I assure the Indian authorities that justice would prevail and through strong evidence the responsible of the incident would be brought to justice.”

He said a Judicial Commission from Pakistan is required to come to India to cross examine the evidences.

Rehman Malik said Pakistan has suffered a lot in term of economy and loss of precious human lives due to terrorism as more than 40,000 innocent people lost their lives.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Dec 15 2012. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan, South Asia, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.