The Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Interior to chalk out a policy to increase visa and visa extension fees, and inform the committee of the exact number of Pakistani prisoners languishing in jails in various countries within 15 days.
Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood directed Ministry of Interior to increase visa fee and visa extension fee like in other countries of the world. "Due to the strict visa policy of different countries at present a huge number of Pakistanis are languishing in various jails across the world," he said.
The meeting was presided over by Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood, and attended by Senator Shahi Syed, Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Senator Begum Najma Hameed, Additional Secretary Ministry of Interior Saud Mirza, Director General (DG) National Crises Management Cell (NCMC) Brigadier Javed Iqbal Lodhi (Retd) and other officials of the Ministry.
Mehmood said that Chinese government charges Rs 8500 for one day overstay and sends foreigners to jail after one month's overstay. He directed the Ministry of Interior to prepare a list in co-ordination with Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the exact number of Pakistanis languishing in various jails in different countries, nature of their offence and term of imprisonment and submit it to the committee within 15 days.
The Chairman said that Dr Aafia Siddiqui is in US jail just because of negligence of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Pakistan ambassador to the US. Two million dollars of the nation were spent on Dr Aafia Siddiqui case, but no record was available in this regard, he said.
Legal experts told the committee that it was not possible to sign any direct agreement with US as the latter avoids entering into bilateral any treaty with any country on the matter of prisoners. The US has made it clear that the only possible option to bring Aafia Siddiqui back to the country is that Pakistan should become member of international treaties on repatriation of prisoners.
Talha Mehmood said that Ministry of Foreign Affair is bound to inform Ministry of Interior about the exact number of foreigners who have been issued Pakistani visas. He said that former ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani issued Pakistani visas to thousands of Americans including officials of Blackwater and other agencies in one year. The committee also asked the Ministry of Interior to make serious efforts to sign a treaty on transfer of offenders with USA, China and Cyprus. Additional Secretary Saud Mirza informed the committee that the agreement on transfer of offenders with China, Cyprus and US are in the pipeline. Presently, Pakistan has singed agreement on Transfer of Offenders with four countries, including Sri Lanka, Thailand, UK and UAE, while 22 agreements with other countries are under consideration, he said.
Comments
Comments are closed.