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Nisar orders streamlining of issuance of visas to Chinese nationals

  • June 12, 2017

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar AliKhan on Monday directed Interior Ministry to review, regulate and streamline the process of issuance of visas to Chinese nationals after the unfortunate incident of abduction of two Chinese from Quetta.

Expressing his deep concern over the unfortunate incident, the minister observed that there is a need to review the process of issuance of visas to the Chinese nationals coming to Pakistan for various projects and simultaneously to maintain a data bank of the Chinese nationals present in various parts of the country.

This databank, to be prepared by NADRA, should be shared with all security agencies, ordered the minister.

He was  chairing a high level meeting which reviewed issuance of visas to the Chinese and the progress made so far on the registration of INGOs under the new policy here at Interior Ministry.

The meeting was attended among others by Secretary Interior,Advocate General, DG IMPASS, Deputy Chairman NADRA and senior officers.

The minister further observed that there is a need to regulate the process of granting of visa extensions to ensure that the facility is not misused.

Taking serious note of laxity often shown by the Pakistani missions abroad during grant of visas especially the business visas,the minister directed that all Pakistani Missions are bound to undertake proper scrutiny of visa application forms and must get all necessary details before exercising their power of issuance of visas to the foreign nationals.

He directed that foreign ministry should be taken onboard and their in put be included while formulating new visa policy guidelines for issuance of visas to the foreigners on various visa categories.

On the security of Chinese nationals present inside the country, the minister observed that ensuring the security of foreign nationals was a shared responsibility.

“Where the government made every effort to provide security toforeigners, the visiting foreign nationals were equally bound toabide by the terms and conditions of their visas and inform local authorities about their movements and activities keeping in view thesecurity requirements, if any.”

The minister observed that it was highly unfortunate that a  misuse of the terms of business visa contributed to the unfortunate incident of abduction and subsequent murder of two innocent Chinese.

He directed Secretary Interior to investigate the matter andto ensure that such misuse does not occur in the future.

The minister was informed that a group of Chinese citizens which included the two abductees obtained business visa from Pakistani Embassy in Beijing and entered Pakistan.

However, instead of engaging in any business activity they went to Quetta and under the garb of learning Urdu language from a Korean national Juan Won Seo, Owner of ARK info tech, and were actually engaged in preaching.

The reports received by the Interior Ministry indicate that Lee Zing Yang (24 years) and Ms.Meng Li Si (26 years), were abducted from Jinnah Town Quetta on 24-05-2017.

The meeting also reviewed the progress in the registration ofINGOs under the new policy framework devised by the Ministry of Interior.

It was informed that so far 66 INGOs have been formally registered with Interior Ministry.

The minister directed Interior Ministry to expedite process of obtaining required information from the INGOs who were yet to furnish complete information so that decision could be taken about their registration with the Interior Ministry.

The minister directed that the process of granting formal registration to INGOs should be completed by end of July.


Article source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/210174-Nisar-orders-streamlining-of-issuance-of-visas-to-Chinese-nationals

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