CHANDIGARH (India), Oct 2: On the eve of key India-Pakistan talks, the World Punjabi Congress (WPC) on Sunday asked the two rival countries to reform their mutual visa system before eventually moving to the abolition of the system.

WPC Chairman Fakhar Zaman told a group of journalists at the eastern Indian city of Chandigarh that visa procedures were hampering the ongoing peace process between the two countries and were probably being used by strong sections of bureaucracy in both governments to block people-to-people contacts.

Indian Foreign Minister K. Natwar Singh is due to arrive in Islamabad on Monday for talks with his Pakistani counterpart to review the progress of what is known as eight-point composite dialogue over the past one year and set targets for future meetings on issues, including the long-standing Kashmir dispute and promotion of trade and travel.

Mr Zaman said the peace process was moving forward and there had been a “very radical and qualitative change” in the thinking of people of the two countries, particularly among the youth in Pakistan’s Punjab province and Indian Punjab.

But he said he apprehended a “very strong lobby of bureaucrats and political adventurists and fundamentalists” on both sides continued to conspire against the peace process.

He said although the planned reopening of the Pakistani Consulate-General in Mumbai and the Indian Consulate-General in Karachi would ease some problems about visa, he would suggest a total abolition of the visa system between the two countries and its replacement by an easier permit system.

However he said if abolition was not possible immediately, the two countries should introduce multiple-entry visas for each other’s citizens which should be for four to five years and not specific to a few cities.

Mr Zaman is leading a 19-member delegation of Punjabi writers from Pakistan now visiting India to help the peace process between the two countries. —Raja Asghar