The Foreign Office has asked all diplomats to get 'travel permission' for visits inside Pakistan owing to their security requirements, according to a circular issued to all embassies.
Talking to Business Recorder, Foreign Office spokesperson Tehmina Janjua confirmed that a circular in this regard had been issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs two days back and said that the move is aimed at facilitating the travel of the e diplomats owing to their security requirements, which would be applicable to all diplomats alike.
She, however, did not give further details about the circular aimed at restricting movements of the diplomats inside Pakistan but added that it was a periodic circular the Ministry issues as a routine matter to the embassies. According to sources in the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its circular issued to the diplomats, has urged the foreign envoys to get permission for travel inside Pakistan.
Sources said that the diplomats would be bound to take 'permission' 15 days before leaving for 'prohibited areas', while five days before leaving for 'non-prohibited areas', the circular added. They said that the prohibited places include 15 areas of Punjab, 18 of Balochistan, five of Sindh, major parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, all cantonments, Gilgit-Baltistan and 10 kilometres along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir. The rest of the country, including the federal and provincial capitals would be categorised non-prohibited areas, sources added.
The Foreign Ministry in June had issued rules asking all diplomats to get permission in advance to travel outside Islamabad, which caused a diplomatic row between United States and Pakistan now said to have been resolved after the American diplomats were stopped on various occasions to enter Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without having 'No Objection Certificates' (NoCs). However, US Embassy's acting spokesperson Siobhan Oat-Judge, expressed her ignorance of receiving such a circular issued by Pakistan's foreign Office. "I don't know the embassy has received any circular", she added.