The US has denied visit visas to three senior Pakistani officials for not taking back Pakistani immigrants who are illegally residing in America, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Tuesday.
He said this while briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Pakistani media reported.
The ban was imposed for not taking back Pakistani immigrantswho are illegally residing in US, The Nation quoted minister as saying.
The three Pakistani officials were identified by Dawnnewspaper as the Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary, Interior and DirectorGeneral, Passport.
Qureshi said that US authorities want to “deport morethan 70 Pakistanis over which we have asked them to complete legal requirementsbefore taking this step.”
He confirmed that 70Pakistani nationals would be deported from the US and they would be broughtback on a special chartered plane on Wednesday.
The US has not imposed ban on other Pakistanis as theConsular Section of the American embassy in Pakistan was still operating, hesaid.
“The foreign ministry will only issue that many visasthat the US does,” Qureshi said.
“If the US issues visas for five years, then Pakistanwill issue it for five years as well,” the foreign minister was quoted assaying by Geo News.
Washington’s decision to deport over 70 Pakistani nationalsand deny visit visas to three senior officials came after a warning issued latelast month by the US that the visa sanction policy might also withhold visas ofPakistani senior officials and not just of ordinary travellers, The Newsreported from Washington.
The Trump administration after coming to power has made itclear that it will strictly enforce such provisions under the law.
Pakistan was the latest to join the list of 10 countriesthat are facing such sanctions under a law according to which countriesrefusing to take back deportees and visa over-stayers could be denied Americanvisas.
Other countries against whom the US has introduced visarestrictions are Ghana, Guyana, the Gambia, Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, SierraLeone, Myanmar and Laos.A senior Pakistani official at the Pakistaniembassy in Washington said that the discussions to resolve the visa issue wasongoing, but claimed that the reports of sanctions on the country weremisleading.