Islamabad: Pakistan will review conditions and requirements of visas for Chinese nationals, to offer maximum security to Chinese citizens visiting Pakistan, the Interior Ministry announced on Thursday.
The decision comes days after the kidnapping and murder of two Chinese nationals by militants in Pakistan’s south-western Balochistan province.
The new stringent visa policy applies to all Chinese nationals visiting Pakistan on various visa categories, particularly business and work visas.
With the revised policies, announced at a high-level meeting by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Pakistan aims “to ensure maximum security of the Chinese nationals visiting Pakistan and to streamline and regulate the entire process of visa issuance to Chinese nationals.”
Chinese nationals were previously eligible for visas on arrival in Pakistan.
The new visa policy would ensure regulation, streamlining and transparency of the process of visa issuances to Chinese nationals, officials said.
It would prevent misuse of the friendly visa regime that exists between the two countries, they added.
“Taking note of few incidents of forged and fake documents of ghost companies [being provided] to the embassies, for issuance of Pakistani visas, it was decided that in future business visas and visas on arrival for Chinese nationals would only be granted after production of invitation or assignment letter duly certified and endorsed by the recognised Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the country along with letter from commercial attaches and other designated officers of Pakistan who are posted abroad for the promotion of business activities,” the interior ministry statement said.
Pakistan is also considering a system to collect data and information of Chinese workers not only involved with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), but also other Chinese nationals visiting the country for various jobs.
As of now CPEC has created 30,000 jobs for Pakistanis, which makes it imperative for government to launch policies and ensure security of both Pakistani and Chinese investors, officials said.
Interior minister Khan has directed the ministry to plug all loopholes in the system and to accelerate consolidation of data of Chinese nationals present in Pakistan for security arrangements.
National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) will assist the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) in putting in place and electronic system for sharing of information between the chambers of commerce and industry and the immigration authorities.
According to the new visa policy, Immigration and Passport (IMPASS) office would deal with the extension of business visa and powers of regional passport offices to grant visa extension will be withdrawn to help regulate the process of extensions in business visas.
Pakistan will also rationalise the process of issuance of work visas to Chinese nationals, who intend to visit Pakistan for various government approved or sponsored projects.
It has been noticed that some Chinese people are working in Pakistan with a ghost company or under forged documents which is why interior ministry decided to revise the policies for businessmen especially.
The meeting held at the Interior Ministry was attended by the secretary interior, advocate general, chairman NADRA, director general (DG) immigration and passports (IMPASS) and the DG Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The DG IMPASS will be authorised to grant three-month extensions. Additional extensions ─ which will be discouraged ─ will be referred to the Interior Ministry
It is worth mentioning that earlier this year, Pakistan had suspended issuance of visas on arrival to all foreigners to restructure the visa mechanism and avoid any irregularities in the database.
