The federal cabinet has approved an amendment in the visa policy for the Afghan citizens under which the system of ‘visa on arrival has been done away with and a new procedure has been introduced in its place instead, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
Under the new arrangement, any person from Afghanistan or any other country, having a manual visa, will not be allowed to enter Pakistan.
Now the Afghan citizens will have to apply for visas through POVS system.
The cabinet also decided that the country’s security agencies will clear visa applications by the Afghan citizens within a month following which Pakistan’s embassy in Afghanistan and the interior ministry will give a final decision on these applications.
However, visa applications by the Afghans on medical grounds will be exempted from security clearance. It was also decided that the Afghan investors would be issued business visas in four weeks rather than in six weeks. Investors from landlocked country are already investing in UAE, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Reporter Awais Kiani