The government is all set to introduce the new visa regime and as a pilot project, electronic visas to five countries – Turkey, China, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates – are being started from Thursday (today).
Talking to reporters, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said Prime Minister Imran Khan is going to announce the new visa policy today with an aim to initiate a new era for the tourism industry and business activities in the country. He said the citizens of 90 countries will be issued business visas while online visa facility will be offered to the visitors of 55 countries.
He said the passenger identification system for e-visas at Karachi and Lahore airports has been installed, which will start functioning in a month. The same system will also be installed at other airports of the country, he added.
Fawad said the visa procedure for foreign journalists is also being reviewed. There will be no need of a no-objection certificate (NOC) for journalists coming from the European Union countries, the United Kingdom and the United States.
To a question, he said the government is striving hard to promote tourism and the private sector should also come forward to put its share through the hoteling industry. To a question, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan is not responsible for wrong policies of the previous governments. “Fortunately, all the state institutions today are on the same page with exemplary civil-military relationship,” he added.
The minister said implementation of National Action Plan (NAP) is underway while the merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a big success of it. He said Pakistan cannot afford to be put on the black list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). About 70 percent conditions of the FATF have been fulfilled and hopefully the country will be out of the grey list by September, he added.
To a question, he said they are consulting the opposition parties on extension to the military courts. The prime minister has tasked Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to contact opposition in this regard, he added.
Fawad castigated the offer of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to imprisoned Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif to get himself treated in Sindh. Nawaz Sharif is a heart patient and should not have been given such an offer since the Sindh hospitals lack proper treatment facilities, he added. As regards the PPP’s ‘Jail Bharo Tehrik’, Fawad said only one barrack of a jail is sufficient to house all the workers of PPP from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkwa and Sindh.
He said the process for the appointment of new managing director of the Pakistan Television (PTV) is underway, who will be appointed in next two weeks.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Media Iftikhar Durrani said Pakistan has many Buddhist spots like Ghandhara and it can attract 20 million Chinese Buddhist tourists, who travel to India every year to visit their religious places there. “Twenty Buddhist relics housed at the Peshawar Museum will be put on display at exhibition in China, which will have a positive impact on Pakistan’s Buddhist tourism,” he added.
Published in Daily Times, March 14th 2019.
