May 17, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 11, 1429

KARACHI, May 16: A Saudi consulate official has said that the new visa condition issue will be resolved within two weeks as the matter is under the consideration of the foreign affairs ministry of Saudi Arabia.

He, however, announced that no visa application, except for Haj, with old passport would be entertained after July 5.

Saudi Vice Consul in Karachi Obaidullah al Harbi was addressing a press briefing held on Friday in the backdrop of news reports highlighting the problems being faced by a number of people seeking to visit Saudi Arabia over the past two months.

The Saudi authorities have made it mandatory that an applicant’s name must consist of three parts – first name, middle name and last name – for them to become eligible for a visa.

Hundreds of people have been refused visas by the Saudi authorities because they do not use their surnames, or in some instances, have only one name. Many people have been obliged to acquire new computerised national identity cards and passports to fulfil this requirement to apply for Saudi visas.

Admitting that the new visa requirement has caused a lot of inconvenience to people, Vice Consul Obaidullah al Harbi said: “The problems being faced here have been explained to the officials in the Kingdom and a positive outcome is expected within two weeks.”

However, he insisted that currently the names of visa applicants must consist of at least three or four parts.

In reply to a query, he said consulate officials were just following the instructions of the foreign affairs ministry of Saudi Arabia and it was difficult to explain the reasons why the condition was introduced in the first place. He said that the condition was not Pakistan-specific as it had been introduced all over the world.

He also announced that no visa application, except for Haj, would be accepted with old passports after July 5. The exemption for Haj would also be withdrawn on December 29, 2008, and all applications would be processed with new machine readable passports only.

Over 400 people in Karachi have been denied Saudi visas in the past two months on account of the new name condition.

The Saudi official also spoke about a three-day international conference being held from May 31 in Makkah. Around 383 religious scholars, professors and researchers from all over the world are likely to participate in the congress being held for the first time by the Muslim World League (Rabita al Alam al Islami) under the patronage of King Abdullah.

The conference, he said, was being organised to highlight similarities between different civilizations and promote culture of peace and harmony. The participants from Pakistan include former justice Sheikh Mohammad Rafique Usmani, who is also the chairman of Islamic University in Korangi, Qazi Hussain Ahmed of Jamaat-i-Islami, Sheikh Sajid Mir Mohammad Qayyum and Sanaullah Al-Madni.

It was also announced on the occasion that the World Blood Donor Day would be observed at all Saudi consulates and offices all over the world. “A three-day programme will be organised on June 14 at the Karachi consulate in which the staff, Saudi migrant students and citizens residing in the city would donate blood. The ministry of health has already been contacted for the purpose,” the official added.

Meanwhile, Federal Labour, Manpower and Overseas Minister Syed Khursheed Shah met Federal Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar and PIA’s managing director to discuss the issues related to Haj operations, PPI adds.

It was noted that people faced great difficulties, including rising fares, while performing Haj. The meeting resolved that fares would be made reasonable so that people could perform Haj with religious zeal. It was also observed that apart from local problems, pilgrims faced difficulties in Makkah and Madinah due to multiple reasons.

Besides, the huge losses incurred by the PIA during the last couple of years also came under discussion.