Kabir to Pakistan: Facilitate visa issuance to Afghans

ATLANTA (Pajhwok): Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir has urged Pakistan to facilitate the issuance of visas to Afghan nationals.

In case of need, the Foreign Ministry on Kabul was ready to cooperate in this regard, the deputy premier said in a tweet from his office on Tuesday.

Abdul Kabir issued the call during a meeting with Obaid ur Rehman Nizamani, charge de affaires at the Pakistan embassy in Kabul.

Nizamani expressed his satisfaction with the friendly relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He promised more efforts to further strengthen these ties.

Kabir noted a large number of Afghan refugees were currently living in Pakistan due four decades of conflict in their homeland.

Pointing to recent events in Torkham and Spin Boldak, the deputy prime minister asked the Pakistani government to create more visa facilities for the Afghan who needed to travel to, or return from, the neighbouring country for medical treatment or meeting their relatives.

Kabir added the Foreign Ministry in Kabul was ready to offer help in this regard, in case of need.

The Pakistani visa is issued free of cost to Afghan nationals, but commission agents charge huge amounts from them. The Afghan side is ready to cooperate on curbing activities of middlemen.”

Kabir suggested Pakistan should hire female officials to search Afghan women crossing into that country to counter any threat to it from Afghanistan.

“Besides political cooperation, we must also try for enhanced trade ties by allowing the flow of commercial goods to reach Afghan and Pakistani cities without any delay,” he stressed.

The Islamic Emirate was trying to maintain balanced and cooperative relations with all countries, he remarked.

Nizamani said his country was ready for sturdy cooperation with the Islamic Emirate. He cited the Pakistani leadership’s desire for increased political and economic links between the brotherly Muslim neighbours.

Pakistan has toughened visa rules for Afghan nationals, who complain of ill-treatment in the neighbouring country.

Thousands of Afghans were detained and tortured by Pakistani policemen in different cities in recent months.

aw/mud