Islamabad, Jan 21: Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik today urged India to reconsider its decision and lift the stay on the new visa regime which was supposed to be implemented from Jan 15.
Malik said, the new visa regime was for the benefit of elderly citizens who wished to visit their relatives.
“I would request Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and my Indian counterpart Sushilkumar Shinde to reconsider and should not let the whole effort to go down the drain,” he said.
Under the new visa regime, senior citizens of age 65 years and above were given visa on arrival facility to meet their relatives and friends.
In the first phase, the enforcement of new visa regime for elderly persons was scheduled to start from Jan 15. However, India suspended the scheme citing technical glitches amidst the tension over mutilation of Indian jawans' bodies near the Line of Control.
Malik said, “We are moving forward in trade. We are moving forward with composite dialogue and the Indian side should reconsider the visa regime also.”
Commenting on cross-border attacks, he said, “We have been facing violations on Line of Control (LoC) from Indian side and I must say there is a long list of violations.”
“If there is anything wrong or there are allegations…..we can discuss them on different forums,” he added.
On Indian Home Minister Sushil Shinde's remark about saffron terror, Malik said he had predicted it three years ago, however, he added that it was purely an internal affair of India. The minister said the Indian government was capable enough to address the issue.
“I would only say……let India handle this matter itself,” he said.
