Gilani urges UK not to single out Pak visa seekers

ISLAMABAD Pakistan on Thursday called upon the United Kingdom not to discriminate Pakistani students, businessmen and travellers while processing their visa cases. According to official sources, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani raised these concerns with British Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling who called on him at the PMs House.
The Prime Minister said that it had been brought to his attention that even those students who were granted scholarships by him for higher studies in the UK had still not been issued visas. He also urged the British side that passports of Pakistani businessmen, who applied for visas, should be returned to them for their travel to other countries while the processing of their visas should be expedited.
The Prime Minister noted that according to a BBC report, 41 percent of Pakistani visa applicants cases were rejected as compared to the world average rejection of visas by British side i.e. 14 percent.
Expressing his satisfaction that the historically cordial bilateral ties between the two countries were progressing steadily in various sectors, the Prime Minister said his government would further strengthen these ties under the agreed framework of Pakistan-UK strategic dialogue.
The Prime Minister thanked the British government for being the only country except Saudi Arabia, which had fulfilled its pledge of economic assistance made at the Tokyo Donors Conference last year. He hoped that other countries would follow the British example to honour their commitments for helping Pakistan in the vitally important reconstruction phase in the militancy-affected areas.
Dilating on the immigration issues being faced by Pakistanis, the Prime Minister drew the attention of the world towards 3.5 million Afghan refugees who were still residing on Pakistans soil and the world community had totally forgotten them. These refugees are not only an economic burden on our economy but they are also a cause of concerns vis-a-vis security situation in the border areas, he added.
The Prime Minister underlined the fact that Pakistan preferred trade rather than aid to address the problems of poverty and unemployment, which provided a ground for recruitment by terrorists and militants. He expressed gratitude to the UK for supporting Pakistans case for grant of generalised system of preference plus facilities and the free trade market with European Union and hoped that the British government would continue to support Pakistan for greater access to Pakistani products into the European markets.
On the regional situation, the Prime Minister stated that Pakistan wanted to have good relations with all its neighbours including India and Afghanistan and was sincere in its endeavours to resume the composite dialogue with New Delhi to resolve all the outstanding issues between the two countries in the interest of peace and stability of the region.
He said it was imperative for Pakistan to have a peaceful eastern border to be able to focus whole-heartedly in its campaign on the western border to eliminate the menace of terrorism and militancy. He reiterated that process of dialogue and negotiations between Pakistan saying India should not continue to remain hostage of terrorist activities as the continued stalemate would only be to the advantage of militants and terrorists.
Chris Grayling thanking the Prime Minister stated if the Conservative Party succeeded in the forthcoming general elections in UK, the new government would devise a system to eliminate the abuses in issuance of visas to enable genuine students, businessmen and travellers to get their visas without any encumbrance.
He regretted that fake colleges and universities established in UK by the visas racketeers were the root cause of a stringent processing visa policy and his party, on taking over the government, would register all the universities and colleges so that the innocent visa seekers were not deceived or misled by them.
He also promised that his party would look into all the genuine grievances of Pakistani visa seekers and address them as much as possible. Chris Grayling lauded the priority attached by the Prime Minister in education sector and assured him that British side would support his government in these efforts through Pakistan-UK Task Force.
He also lauded Pakistan, as a frontline state in war against terror, which he said, was detrimental to international peace and security. Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin, Minister for Interior Rehman Malik, Senator Syeda Sughra Imam, and Secretaries Finance and Foreign Affairs also attended the meeting.