Federal Cabinet unveils new visa policy for Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has approved the new visa policy for Afghanistan to facilitate business and people-to-people contacts between the two countries.

This comes at a time when Abdullah Abdullah, the Chair of the High Council for National Reconciliation in Afghanistan, is on a three-day visit to Pakistan.

The new visa regime for Afghanistan is liberal in its scope and application. Various aspects of visas like duration of stay, validity and number of entries in Pakistan have all been substantially liberalised. This would facilitate visiting Afghan nationals, students, businessmen, investors and medical patients.

Patients would also be granted visas for up to six months on the Torkham border to save them the hassle of traveling to Pakistan Embassy in Kabul or Pakistani Consulates.

Pakistani Missions in Afghanistan will now also be able to grant visit visa for one year with multiple entries and business visa for up to five years, which would be extendable within Pakistan.

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Keeping in view the plight of Afghan students, the federal cabinet decided that they could now get a visa for the whole duration of their studies instead of just for one year.

The approval of the visa policy came after extensive parliamentary deliberations for the last three months when Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser took notice of the issue and constituted a Parliamentary Task Force to resolve it. The Task Force was headed by Special Assistant to the PM on Establishment Arbab Shahzad.

Numerous meetings were held and visits to border crossing points were undertaken. The speaker chaired a number of meetings himself. The result was an extensive parliamentary input on multiple aspects of the visa policy.

The new visa policy had been framed in the perspective of our brotherly ties with Afghanistan and took a people-centric approach and facilitate common Afghans.

The policy would also greatly benefit bilateral trade and commerce and usher a new era of mutual prosperity especially for people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.