ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India agreed on Friday to introduce a liberalised visa regime, but put off the signing of the document to an unspecified date.
The progress towards much-anticipated easing of visa restrictions at the end of a two-day meeting of interior secretaries of the two countries was accompanied by an incremental, but significant, advance on counter-terrorism cooperation and a consensus that terrorism continued to pose threat to the peace process.
“Both sides welcomed the finalisation of the visa agreement and agreed to sign it at an early date. The Pakistan side said some internal approvals were under process and the agreement will be signed once they are in place,” a joint statement said.
The two countries, which have witnessed a remarkable turnaround in bilateral ties over the past year, were expected to ink the much-anticipated agreement on visa.However, it had to be delayed on two counts. First, the Pakistani side had yet to get the proposed agreement approved by the federal cabinet, and secondly, Interior Minister Rehman Malik insisted the pact be signed by the political leadership, instead of bureaucrats.
The much-talked about relaxed visa regime is anything but revolutionary. It appears aimed at promoting bilateral trade than people-to-people contacts.
Businessmen, once the agreement is concluded, may get one-year multiple entry visas, which would allow them to visit five cities in each other’s country instead of the previous three.
They would also be exempted from police reporting on arrival and departure.
Beyond the visa regime, the joint statement carried a number of significant steps towards rebuilding confidence between the two countries.
The agreement on enhanced cooperation between premier investigative agencies of India and Pakistan, NIA and FIA, and reiteration of commitment to fight terrorism may have been a regular feature of such statements, but proposals like setting up a hotline between the interior secretaries and agreement on initiating negotiations on a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) denoted progress.
It was particularly interesting to note that both countries agreed to expeditious execution of pending red notices.
The Indian list of 50 fugitives includes Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, Maulana Masood Azhar, Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon. The Pakistani list is not known.
India’s CBI and FIA would now meet to discuss the issue of red notices, in addition to deliberating on human trafficking, counterfeit currency and cyber crimes.
Similarly, an exchange of updates on investigation into the Mumbai attacks and Samjhauta Express bombing may look a formality for such an interaction, but Pakistan’s willingness to receive an Indian judicial commission, which it had hitherto resisted, was yet another sign of forward movement.
The two sides also took up the issue of inadvertent crossings by fishermen.
The Indian Coast Guards and the Pakistan Maritime Agency will meet next month to see how to handle the inadvertent crossings.
