February 18, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 16, 1423

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NEW DELHI, Feb 17: India and Pakistan have agreed in principle to grant visas to new deputy high commissioners appointed by them by Tuesday, Press Trust of India (PTI) said on Monday.

“It has been agreed that assignment visas of senior Indian diplomat T C A Raghavan and Pakistan’s Munawar Saeed Bhatti would be cleared on Tuesday,” PTI quoted Vikram Misri, acting Charge d’Affaires in Islamabad as saying.

Misri said Raghavan and Bhatti would simultaneously be granted visas after which they would decide on the dates to take over their respective assignments. Both have been designated as deputy high commissioners until the appointment of high commissioners, PTI quoted Misri as saying.

The visas of Raghavan and Bhatti were pending with foreign ministries of the two countries for several months as bilateral relations dipped after the attack on Parliament in 2001.

After a series of expulsions, India and Pakistan have brought down their staff strength in their diplomatic missions in Islamabad and New Delhi from 120 to 47 members, PTI said.

The Indian high commission currently has only 41 members, as the visas of the replacements of the expelled officials have not yet been cleared, it said. “The Indian mission here has only three diplomats against Pakistan’s five in New Delhi as Islamabad has expelled more diplomats,” PTI said from Islamabad.