India on Tuesday put on hold its move to allow visa on arrival facility for Pakistani senior citizens after tensions escalated on the Indo-Pak border following the brutal killing of Indian soldiers near the Line of Control (LoC) last week.
Top government officials said the ‘’hardening’’ of the stance may not remain limited to the visa on arrival facility for Pakistanis but an ‘’overall view’’ on the rolling out of the liberalised bilateral visa agreement, which seeks to ease travel restrictions on Pakistanis entering India, will be taken depending on the “emerging situation’’.
The bilateral visa agreement is one of the key components of the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) between both countries to promote ‘’people to people’’ contact. Under the agreement, the visa on arrival facility for senior citizens was to be operationalised on Tuesday while the “group tourist visa’’ facility for Pakistanis was to be rolled out from March 15. The dates were fixed during Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik’s visit to New Delhi in December 2012.
“It is true that the dates were finalised a month back but we need to study the situation now before rolling out the new visa facilities,” a top government functionary said. The sources indicated that the Union home ministry may even decide to go slow on visa clearances for Pakistanis under the existing regime if the situation on the border continues to remain tense.
India’s refusal to operationalise the new visa facility on Tuesday was a well-deliberated decision taken by the MHA after the Prime Ministers Office cleared the move, the sources said.
On Tuesday, the MHA claimed the visa on arrival facility was put on hold due to the “technical reasons’’. “There have been some technical concerns which are yet to be resolved,” minister of state for home R.P.N. Singh said.
Top sources revealed the MHA had begun a rethink soon after the cross LoC killings and there was “a step by step dilution’’ of its move to operationalise the visa facility which finally resulted in its cancellation on Tuesday.