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Pak, India call for liberalisation of visa regime

Dunya News

Pakistan and India has called for early liberalisation of visa regime between the two countries.

Concluding the 4th round of India-Pakistan Parliamentarians Dialogue, the parliamentarians also urged that through the liberal visa regime, citizens of both Pakistan and India should be given visas exempted from police reporting to avoid undue harassment.They also underlined that health-related travel and religious tourism in both countries must be facilitated as a priority by both countries. Exchange of artists and media persons must also be accelerated by the two sides.The Parliamentarians emphasised that educationists and senior citizens from the two countries must be allowed visa-free access. The two sides must also swiftly move towards allowing citizens to travel across the border in their own vehicles.The two-day dialogue began with discussion on the developments in the official Pak-India Dialogue. Parliamentarians specifically discussed the themes including Visas, Education, Health, Local Government and the Role of Media. On each of these themes, specific recommendations have been made by the Parliamentarians that form the Joint Statement issued upon the conclusion of the two-day dialogue.For the future dialogues, Parliamentarians have agreed to focus on sectoral issues such as agriculture and irrigation, energy (including renewable energy) and information technology, etc. as also general issues such as strengthening democracy and promoting accountability in public life.The dialogue Co-Chair India. Yashwant Sinha, Member, Lok Sabha (Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, BJP); former Union Minister and Dialogue Co-Chairs Pakistan Honourable Senator Muhammad Jehangir Bader, Leader of the House, Senate of Pakistan; Honourable Mr. Khurram Dastgir Khan, MNA, Chairman, National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce (NA-96, Gujranwala-II, Punjab, PML-N) addressed a press conference upon the conclusion of the dialogue.