ISLAMABAD: Member of Canadian parliament from the Liberal government, Iqra Khalid, has called for fair process in granting study permits to Pakistani students and expressed the hope that the visa processing facility currently in Abu Dhabi would be moved back to Islamabad.

Speaking at a webinar arranged by the Pakistan High Commission on ‘Student Direct Stream: Opportunities for Pakistani students in Canada’ on Tuesday, she said Islamabad is a better place for that to happen as it would help resolve a lot of the issues that we are facing not only with the student visas but also with temporary resident visas and business visas.

Ms Khalid said she would continue to “make our efforts and ensure that there’s a fair process to encourage more students from Pakistan to come and educate themselves in Canada”.

She said Canada relies on a healthy immigration due to its growing labour market and the Pakistani Canadians, especially the Pakistani students, have a lot to contribute to “this wonderful country”.

She said that one of her focuses as a member of parliament over the past six years has been to increase people-to-people relationship between Pakistan and Canada, increase trade and exchanges in education, culture and heritage and ensure the Pakistani Canadians are well satisfied with the Canadian immigration system.

She said that before the Liberal government took office in 2015, it used to take approximately four years for somebody from Pakistan to sponsor their spouse to come to Canada but now that time has been reduced to about 12 months.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2021