CHAGAI: The Pakistani authorities have requested their Iranian counterparts to stop immigration clearance of Pakistani citizens returning from Iran for a few days.

According to Levies Force officials, a meeting in this regard was held between the officials of the two countries at Raahdari Gate at Pakistan-Iran border in Taftan on Sunday. Assistant Commissioner of Taftan Waris Khan led the Pakistani delegation while Iranian side was represented by the Marzaban Grade-2 of Mir Javeh.

The meeting discussed the issue of immigration clearance of Pakistani citizens amid coronavirus outbreak in Iran. The assistant commissioner of Taftan told his counterpart that they already had a huge burden of the people who had returned from Iran and had been quarantined in Taftan. Therefore the Pakistani nationals returning to the country should be kept in Iranian territory for a few days.

The Iranian side agreed to the request but despite that more than 100 Pakistani citizens were granted immigration clearance on Sunday. However, they were stranded at the border for several hours and finally allowed to return to Iran.

The immigration clearance of Pakistani citizens was under way till the filing of this report.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2020