NEW DELHI, Feb 16: India and Pakistan have drastically pruned the number of visas they issue to each other’s nationals amid a continuing deep chill in relations between the arch-rival neighbours, a newspaper said on Sunday.

The Times of India found that Pakistan issued only 1,091 visas to Indians in 2002, way down from the 56,500 it gave the year earlier.

And India, which once issued up to 400 visas a day to Pakistanis, now gives only about three, the newspaper said.

Most visas India issued earlier were to Pakistanis who wanted to visit family or seek medical treatment, it said.

But at present the most common Indian and Pakistani visitors to the other’s country are multinational executives, the daily said, adding that 300 of the visas Pakistan issued to Indians last year were for business people.

A Pakistani official in New Delhi quoted by The Times of India said only well-to-do Indians who want to attend a family function such as a wedding are applying for visas.

“So people joke we are only issuing wedding visas,” he said.

An Indian official from Delhi’s high commission in Islamabad quoted by the newspaper said: “At least we are issuing visas. Most Western countries have practically stopped issuing visas to Pakistanis.”

Longstanding hostility between India and Pakistan skyrocketed after a December 2001 attack on India’s parliament in which 15 people were killed. New Delhi blamed the attack on militants backed by Islamabad.

While the two sides agreed to pull back massed troops from their border in October, tension remains high with the two countries on Feb 8 expelling the other’s top diplomat.

The two sides have had no direct rail, road or air links since the crisis following the parliament attack.—AFP