SAARC summit has visa problems

JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, April 1, 2007 : South Asia’s top leadership will meet on Tuesday to discuss how to promote ``interconnectivity’’ in the region, but in the runup to the SAARC summit, Pakistan has already accused India of discriminating only against Pakistanis with SAARC visas which entitles them to certain travel privileges.

It is believed that when the Foreign Ministers of the SAARC region meet in the capital tomorrow, on the eve of the summit-level talks, Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri will ask why India has been demanding information from Pakistani citizens with SAARC visas, when such information is not being asked of other SAARC citizens.

On the open floor, that is in the full hearing of the other foreign ministers, Kasuri is expected to say that this ``discrimination’’ has been going on since September 2006.

Foreign Office spokesman Navtej Sarna did not respond to queries on the subject.

In fact, it seems as if the SAARC summit could once again witness some of the hostility between India and Pakistan, with reports from Islamabad quoting Pakistan prime minister Shaukat Aziz as saying that ``SAARC has a lot of potential, (but) dispute resolution, particularly the Kashmir issue and peace and harmony, was a must to realise this potential.’’

If Aziz does raise Kashmir at the summit, it can be assumed that New Delhi will not kindly take to the reference and acidly point out the SAARC charter does not allow a discussion of bilateral issues.

Trade could become another sticking point, with India and Pakistan already said to have held the other responsible for hindering trade, citing the imposition of non-tariff barriers under SAFTA.

Some of this bilateral distrust was manifest at the meeting of the Foreign Secretaries over the last couple of days, when Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammed Khan informally raised the issue of India discriminating against Pakistanis with SAARC visas.

According to SAARC convention, all categories of people with SAARC visas, whether diplomats, parliamentarians, judges, etc, only have to inform the country they intend to visit, and the visa is granted to them.

But when a Pakistani delegation landed in New Delhi in September 2006 to participate in an Immigration Officers conference, they were made to fill out a form asking for detailed information about how long they wanted to stay, where and if they intended to travel within India.
Pakistani sources said the ``discrimination’’ has continued till today.

The SAARC visa is regarded as a highly coveted sticker in these distrustful times in South Asia. Journalists, for example, have been lobbying their governments for expanding the SAARC visa category to cover them, but to no avail so far.

At a press conference today, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shanker Menon said India was fully in favour of promoting connectivity between the region, especially in terms of easier travel access.

Menon’s comments came in response to the denial of a visa by the Pakistani side by a lone cyclist from India, who was traveling across the region with the intention to promote goodwill and harmony.

Meanwhile, Iran’s application to become an observer of SAARC has been unanimously accepted by the Foreign Secretaries. However, an observer from Teheran will only attend the SAARC meeting from the next summit onwards, when he will sit alongside the US, the European Union, China, Japan and South Korea.

ENDS