President Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) Muhammad Ishaq Butt has said that business community of this export-oriented city, which is also hub of cottage industry of the country, is facing serious hardship to get visas of European countries especially UK and Germany.
Talking to the reporters here on Saturday he said that foreign customers and investors are reluctant to visit Pakistan due country's prevailing law and order situation. Resultantly exporter community has to visit foreign countries to get foreign consignments to enhance export for the country, he said.
The SCCI President further said that foreign embassies in Pakistan have adopted strict criteria for processing visa applications and are also taking long time to deal with those businessmen, who have valid visas of other countries. He added that valid visas of the exporters are expired as a result, their scheduled meetings with the foreign party are badly affected.
The whole scenario was multiplying the problems and hindering the export business of Sialkot, he pointed out. The SCCI President further stated that British and German consulates have refused to grant visas for regular visitors due to which the matters are getting complicated day by day.
Ishaq Butt urged the German and British embassies to relax their visa issuance policy and expedite their processing procedure to facilitate exporters. The SCCI President urged foreign and commerce ministries to intervene and resolve the matter through consultation with the concerned consulates and help the businessmen to solve the problems.
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