Saturday, July 1 2006 11:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Indians wishing to visit Pakistan, especially businessmen and pilgrims, have been granted additional visa benefits by the Pakistan Government in its latest visa policy.

Indian businessmen wishing to do business in the country will get a six-month multiple entry visa. Indian pilgrims would get a 15-day visa instead of the earlier five in a 'special package' of the new visa policy announced by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar.

The tourist visa for Indians has been enhanced from 14 days to 30, media reports said.



The visa procedure for Indian diplomats would also be accelerated and the security clearance of diplomats would take only four weeks, Sherpao announced.



Thousands of Indians, both Hindus and Sikhs, visit Pakistan on pilgrimage every year. Sikhs attend the death anniversary of the 18-century king Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the birth anniversary of the faith's founder, Guru Nanak Dev. From Pakistan, pilgrims come to various Hindu shrines and to Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan.



The minister denied that relaxing visa restrictions on visiting Indians meant a change in Pakistan's Kashmir policy.



The ministers emphasised that the new visa policy was meant to project a "soft" image of Pakistan, to boost tourism and ensure that the country stayed with the times while dealing with visitors from other countries.



However, visas for journalists will be issued by Pakistani missions in the shortest possible time, according to the nature of the jobs.



Stating that some Indian 'requests' had been met by the Pakistani government, The Nation newspaper wrote that the stay for "religious tourists from the arch rival state" was being enhanced.

The new visa regime would work according to categorisation of countries in different lists. The list A, which formerly included 48 countries, has now been extended to 175. People from these countries would be able to obtain visas without referring their applications to diplomatic missions abroad.



Only 15 countries, including Israel, have been kept out of the list. Bakhtiar said that tourists from 23 countries would be issued visas on arrival, directly at the airports and other entry points.



This treatment was offered only to China and Japan in the past. However, the government had made it mandatory for tourists from these countries to be registered with Pakistan government's approved tourism firms.

The relaxed visa policy has also been extended to those countries that can share trade and investment with Pakistan. Investors and businessmen of 69 countries will be given visas at the airports.



Pakistani embassies and missions would also be authorised to issue work visas for five years, compared to the earlier three years. Pakistani expatriates would be allowed a multi-entry-visa for five years and would be able to stay in the country for at least a year.

The interior minister said that the government would deal with terrorists strictly and relaxations in visa policy would not benefit them.



"Pakistan's new visa policy is in line with the government's policy of liberalisation and according to the vision of President Pervez Musharraf. We wish to show a positive image of Pakistan where visitors are welcomed with open arms," the Daily Times quoted Sherpao as saying.