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| Kasuri to negotiate liberal visa regime in Delhi | | New sites for Indian pilgrims in Pakistan | | BL KAK
New Delhi | February 17
An important official mesage from Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, will be in New Delhi next week. He will cary with him a new set of proposals to negotiate a revised liberal visa regime during his meeting with his Indian counterpart, Pranab Mukherjee.
Kasuri, who will attend the three-day India-Pakistan joint commission deliberations, is reported to have opined that Pakistan's new set of proposals will go a long way in satusfying the needs of travellers on both sides. Kasuri has also been reported to have commented that there is no reason that his propoisals should not ber accepted by New Delhi if "political will is displayed by the Indian leadership. The old visa regime dates back to 1974.
Some of the changes that Pakistan has suggested in the new proposals include doing away with police reporting for certain categories, allowing citizens aged 65 years and over to get visas on arrival, enhancing the number of religious sites to be visited by each side, increasing the number of days for visiting businessmen, allowing group visas and balancing the number of religious pilgrims so that an equal number of Pakistanis are also allowed inside India.
In 2005, New Delhi had given Islamabad a draft of a new visa regime to which Pakistan says it had, after a few months, responded with its own set of proposals. When Pranab Mukherjee visited Islamabad he brought back these proposals and there had been an understanding that an agreement would be arrived at before February 20 this year, when Kasuri visits New Delhi. But this has not been the case. According to some media reports, Islamabad had "virtually struck down or watered down" New Delhi's proposals to liberalise what is considered the "most regressive visa regime" hampering the process of enhancing people-to-people contacts between the two countries.
Pakistan's official stand: "This is not true that we have watered down the Indian proposals and it appears to be based on a lack of understanding. Already there is a separate protocol regarding pilgrim visas, and under this, Indian and Pakistani pilgrims visit religious sites on both sides. Now we are negotiating a revised protocol which will allow for more than a dozen new religious sites in Pakistan for Indian pilgrims and at the same time more religious sites for Pakistanis inside India".
Pakistan, it appears, is also willing to relax police reporting for certain categories. Normally, journalists on both sides have been allowed an exemption in this regard but Islamabad wants to increase the various categories, which will be exempted from this very out dated ritual. At the moment, citizens have to report to the nearest police station to declare their arrival and departure. This particular proposal when earlier sent to New Delhi was returned to Islamabad with a few observations.
Islamabad is also reported to be receptive to group tourism and has taken an extra mile by proposing that businessmen should be given one year multiple visa and allowed to stay for 30 days on each visit. India had proposed a 90-day business visa. But it appears that old habits die hard and even though President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has called for an increase in tourist flow which can only be possible with liberalizing the present visa regime and the Ministry of Tourism is celebrating 'Visit Pakistan Year', an Indian journalist in Islamabad was denied permission to visit Ketasraj temple complex in Pakistan.
This temple complex celebrated one of the holiest days of the year on the Hindu calendar, Shivaratri, on Friday (Feb. 16). But when the correspondent of The Hindu put in a request to visit this sixth century Hindu temple complex in Pakistan's Punjab province, she was denied permission. The Pak authorities little cared that thousands of Indian readers lost a chance to read about the government's efforts to renovate Katasraj temple for Indian pilgrims. Here was free publicity for them, which the Pak bureaucracy completely ignored. So if Indian citizens in Islamabad are denied permission what chance of liberalizing the existing visa regime?
Yet another important development round the corner: Pakistan and India will ink an agreement in New Delhi on Wednesday (Feb. 21) for reducing risks of nuclear accidents, well-placed sources told EARLY TIMES. Acording to these sources, the details of the agreement have finally been worked out by experts of the two countries. The accord will be signed in the presence of Foreign Ministers and Foreign Secretaries of the two countries. Diplomatic observers are attaching great importance to the proposed agreement, terming it a major confidence-building measure (CBM) between the two countries. The sources said that the agreement will greatly help in reducing tension pertaining to apprehensions of misuse and mishandling of nuclear arsenal on part of any side.
The sources revealed to EARLY TIMES that Additional Foreign Secretary and expert on disarmament, Tariq Osman Hayder, will sign the agreement on behalf of Pakistan. His Indian counterpart, KC Singh, will sign on behalf of the host country. The two governments have already approved the deal and it would be enforced at once. Pranab Mukherjee and Khurshid Kasuri will undertake overall review of ties between the two countries and look into progress on efforts for resolution of the Kashmir issue. The possible disengagement on Siachen Glacier will also figure in their talks.
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