Armed with visa power, Natwar goes to Pakistan

In trying to take the peace process forward after the slight chill in New York, External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh is bringing with hi...

In trying to take the peace process forward after the slight chill in New York, External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh is bringing with him a proposal to revamp the rigid 20-year-old visa protocol and remove restrictions peculiar to the two countries.

As Singh arrives here tomorrow—he will meet Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz—the idea is to include more categories like business visas, tourist visas to groups, student visas besides increasing number of days and number of places allowed for travel for people from either side.

Sources said the slew of confidence-building measures to ease travel between the two countries have been hindered by the stringent visa protocol.

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The move to change this is also in step with the Civil Aviation Ministry’s proposal to do away with the restriction on points of origin so that people can enter and exit either country from different points. The Ministry also plans to increase the number of flights to 19 from the existing 12 and add Hyderabad and Kolkata to the points of call for Pak airlines.

India is keen to formalise the understanding on allowing group tourism by designated travel agents. This been in the works for a while and, sources say, both sides agreed to implement this in-principle in the last composite dialogue.

This would mean that designated travel agents on either side can take groups of tourists on a special visa. A list of designated travel agents will be handed over to Pak authorities at a presentation in the first meeting of the Joint Commission on Tuesday.

India is open to the idea of exempting most of these categories from police reporting. At least where groups are involved, the process of designating tour operators will address security issues related to police reporting.

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There is also the proposal from the meeting of the last Joint Commission in 1989 to increase the number of places on a single visa to eight.

Both sides had agreed to this then, but before its implementation the relationship entered a new low.

Putting people to people on fast track

		New Delhi will propose to add the following new visa categories and is open to making most of these exempt from police reporting • Multiple-entry business visas • Increase number of destinations on a single visa to eight • Visa-on-arrival at Wagah for those above 65 and below 12 years of age • Student visas to those who secured admission in recognised Indian institutions • Group visas to tourists and pilgrims being taken by designated travel agents • Visas to pilgrims for centres listed by both sides. India proposes to expand this list • Liberal issue of medical/health visas

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