Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar on Monday directed the ministry to review, regulate and streamline the process of issuing visas to Chinese nationals after two Chinese were kidnapped from the southwestern city of Quetta last month.
Expressing his deep concern over the unfortunate incident, the minister said that there is a need to review the process of issuance of visas to the Chinese nationals coming to Pakistan and simultaneously to maintain a databank of Chinese nationals staying in the country, the ministry said in a statement.
Nisar ordered that the databank, which will be prepared by the national registration authority, should be shared with all security agencies, said the statement issued after the minister presided over a high level meeting in Islamabad
The high level meeting was held to review issuance of visas to Chinese and the progress made so far on the registration of international nongovernment organizations (NGOs) under the new policy at the ministry.
On the security of Chinese nationals present inside the country, the minister said that ensuring the security of foreign nationals is a shared responsibility.
"Where the government makes every effort to provide security to foreigners, the visiting foreign nationals are equally bound to abide by the terms and conditions of their visas and inform local authorities about their movements and activities keeping in view the security requirements, if any," Nisar urged.
It is highly unfortunate that a misuse of the terms of business visa contributed to the unfortunate incident of the abduction of the two innocent Chinese, the minister said.
Nisar said that all Pakistani missions are bound to undertake proper scrutiny of visa application forms and must get all necessary details before exercising their power of issuance of visas to foreign nationals.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday that China would continue to use various channels to gain and verify information about the reported killing of the two Chinese nationals kidnapped in Pakistan last month.
According to Hua Chunying, the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan had launched immediate emergency procedures and cooperated with the Pakistani side to rescue the two nationals.
However, Hua said the Pakistani side had provided China information that the two Chinese nationals were probably dead.
