Liberalised visa regime

Announcing the salient features of the new liberalised visa regime at a press conference on 13th January, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said it seeks to facilitate businessmen and investors from 42 countries of the world, with a view to encouraging foreign investment in Pakistan. Of these 42, the businessmen and investors from 28 countries may be granted visa at the airports in Pakistan for a period of 30 days.
However, they would be required to produce recommendation, in writing, from their respective chambers of commerce and industry, besides an invitation from a business organisation with trade relations or an association with any organisation in Pakistan and a letter of recommendation from the Pakistani commercial counsellor in their countries.
As for investors from the remaining 14 countries, they would be entitled to five-year multiple visit visa on production of the same specified documents, and Pakistani missions will process their applications within 24 hours.
In so far as aspirants from all the other countries are concerned, ones associated with internationally recognised companies alone would be granted visas.
All this holds good for business-related visa for intending foreign visitors, thereby unmistakably acknowledging the vital role business visits can play in promoting and consolidating economic development of developing countries like Pakistan.
Needless to point out, the visa liberalisation policy, though formulated rather belatedly, can prove instrumental in bolstering increasingly gainful business and economic co-operation with the rest of the world. This, of course, has reference to the lately increasing evidence of foreign businessmen eyeing Pakistan as a promising destination for exploring possibilities of imaginative ventures.
Viewed in this perspective, the visa liberalising policy will certainly be found to be quite in keeping with the fast changing times. For it goes without saying that by facilitating prospective investors from rich countries desirous of hassle free visit to Pakistan would be hastening the country's awaiting economic revitalisation.
It will be noted that the authors of the new business-specific visa policy appear to have given due consideration also to other requirements of purposeful, mutually beneficial, and enduring relationship between nations. As will be evident from a close study of the visa facilitating scheme, due attention has been given to the need of increasing prospects of man-to-man contacts on a widening scale from the thrust for harmonising relations with foreign countries, as in the case of ongoing peace process with India.
Referring to visits of a large number of Sikhs to Pakistan on religious grounds, the minister also revealed that the government has decided to facilitate the Sikh pilgrims coming to their sacred places.
As such, Indian nationals working in international agencies, including the World Bank, United Nations, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank would also be facilitated under the new regime. As he said, the Sikh pilgrims would be granted visas to visit their sacred places in Lahore, Sheikhupura, Rawalpindi and Hassanabdal. All in all, visa liberalisation can lead to various gains, hence it needs pursuing with vigorous efforts.
There is, of course, the matter of establishing proper facilities at the airports for implementing this scheme. A visit to any international airport in the country where these visas will be issued on arrival would show how cramped and inadequate the immigration facilities are.
The number of counters are far too inadequate than the traffic would warrant and these too are not all properly manned at any given time mostly. There are long queues of passengers for immigration formalities and the problem is further exacerbated by the protocol officers of our elite, of which we have no dearth, who by-pass these long lines and clear our VIPs first.
It would be in the fitness of things if the government would attend to this bottleneck and irritant before a further load of visa issuance is added on these counters.