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Updated on
Summary
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday urged the British government to reconsider their visa policy for Pakistani nationals particularly for students and businessmen, which was causing serious inconvenience to the visa applicants. He called for enhanced intelligence sharing between the two countries in order to strengthen cooperation against the common threat of extremism and terrorism. Talking to Alan Johnson, British Secretary of State for Home Affairs and Bob Ainsworth, British Secretary of State for Defence, the Prime Minister called for early shifting of visa office from Abu Dhabi back to Pakistan, besides quicker processing of visa cases and refunding of visa fees to the applicants with rejected cases. The Prime Minister also raised other issues relating to counselor affairs between the two countries such as arrest of passengers onboard PIA flights, denial of visa to dependent children of Pakistani diplomats and officials posted to the United Kingdom, fate of the remaining five students arrested in April this year on unproven terrorism charges. He directed the Minister of Interior to apprise the British Home Minister of the details of all these issues for expeditious resolution. He asked the British Secretary of State to convey his thanks to Prime Minister Gordon Brown for co-chairing the FoDP Summit in New York. The Prime Minister underscored the need for more defence cooperation particularly in the field of training and capacity-building of Pakistan armed forces. Apprising the British Secretaries on the successful military operation in Malakand and rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts for the dislocated persons, the Prime Minister said the pledges made by the Friends of Pakistan must be fulfilled in order to make Malakand strategy successful. Referring to the ongoing cooperation among Pakistan, United States and the UK in the present campaign against terrorism, Gilani underlined the importance of bridging trust deficit and supply of drone technology to Pakistan. British Home Secretary Alan Johnson regretted the fact that a large number of Pakistani nationals particularly students and businessmen had faced difficulties in obtaining visas since the introduction of new Point-Based System of visa regime by the UK. He assured the Prime Minister that he would look into current problems with a view to resolve them. The British Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth while agreeing with the Prime Minister for further enhancing intelligence-sharing between the two countries, said that Britain would look into Pakistans request for assistance for capacity-building and higher number of training facilities for its law enforcement agencies personnel.
