Sunday, July 24 2005 17:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Issues like easing visa restrictions to host cultural events and promote frequent interaction between artists of the two countries are expected to figure in talks between India and Pakistan in Islamabad on Tuesday (July 26, 2005).

A delegation of Indian officials headed by Secretary Culture, Neena Ranjan, would arrive here tomorrow for talks with their Pakistani counterparts on Promotion of Friendly Exchanges in different fields, which is one of the eight topics listed under the composite dialogue process.

Indian officials here say that ever since the peace process began last year, Indian High Commission in Islamabad has increased the visa facilities by leaps and bounds.

Currently about 10,000 visas were being issued, which included medical as well as business categories.

A number of Pakistani film personalities, musicians and artists were being issued visas to tour India. Currently around 100 Pakistani film artists and technicians were in Mumbai either taking part in shooting of movies, working out tie ups for joint productions or scouting for chances to act in Bollywood.

A number of Indian film stars had also visited Pakistan, including Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif. Local officials in Lahore reportedly refused permission to Saif to perform.

On the music front, Pakistan issued visas to Wasifuddin Dagar to perform but his show was cancelled in Karachi by the local authorise. Another Indian artist, Shubha Mudgal, was denied visa despite the Indian High Commission announcing the schedule of her performance here.

On the media front, Pakistani officials deported senior Tehalka journalist, Harinder Baweja, on arrival at Lahore two days ago. No reasons were given for her deportation except mentioning that she was 'blacklisted.'

Indian officials here said that India has adopted a much liberal procedure to give visas to Pakistanis to promote people-to-people cooperation between the two countries.

Ten thousand visas is lot and they are expected to go up once the Indian Consulate in Karachi begins functioning perhaps by the end of this year, an Indian High Commission official said.

The composite dialogue would come to an end after the meeting of Secretaries of Commerce to discuss trade promotion, talks between senior military officials on nuclear and conventional confidence-building measures and parleys between police officials on terrorism and drug trafficking in August in New Delhi.

After these talks, Foreign Secretaries and Foreign Ministers would meet to review the progress in the process.