India-Pakistan to have visa regime in Sep

New Delhi, Jun 12: India-Pakistan are expected to have a visa regime that will make travel between both the countries easy for the businessmen, senior citizens and journalists of both the countries in Sep.

Both the countries are working towards the betterment at the Joint Working Group meetings in the visa agreements for finalsing a contract, at next Home Secretary-level talks anticipated to be held in Sep.

"If both the countries reach an agreement, for the first time India and Pakistan will have a liberalised visa regime," said a government official.

India intends to have unperturbed norms for issuing of visas to businessmen, journalists, businessmen, patients and senior citizens who want to travel for medical treatment.

Under the recommendation the visa holders will be given the permission to travel across the country and the visas wont be restricted to cities only, said the official.

New Delhi has recommended that people who travel to India with a authorized visa and who want to come again to the country within two years should be excused from undergoing background security checks that is done from New Delhi.

"We are positive on liberalising the visa regime with Pakistan to facilitate greater people-to-people contacts between the two nations," the official said.

In a Joint Working Group meeting last week in Islamabad on the issues of visa, both India and Pakistan declared that they were ready to continue talks on making the on going visa agreement better when the group would meet next time in New Delhi in Aug.

Both the countries also said that they would work together towards settling the new visa agreement when the Interior and Home Secretaries will meet in Islamabad next.

OneIndia News