This guy has been giving visas to anyone who showed up at the embassy. Why? Now even govt doesn’t know how many visas were given to the American nationals heading to Pakistan.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/22/govt-fails-to-tell-na-how-many-visas-issued-to-americans.html
ISLAMABAD: The government failed on Thursday to provide information to the National Assembly on the number of visas Pakistan embassy in Washington had issued to Americans over the last three years.
In reply to an unstarred question put up by Malik Shakir Bashir Awan of the PML-N, newly-appointed State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar provided a detailed written reply on the number of visas issued to foreigners throughout the world, but was silent on the number of Americans who visited Pakistan between Jan 1, 2008, and March 1 this year.
As unstarred category of questions are not taken up for open discussion in the house, the sketchy answers went unnoticed.
Mr Awan sought information about the number and names of foreigners who had been issued Pakistani visas between Jan 1 and March 1, this year, along with purposes of and periods of their visas.
When Ms Khar was asked to explain the omission, she said: “I have not seen this particular question.”
However, she expressed surprise over the missing required information about Americans, saying the question must have been approved while she was abroad.
However, she said: “The mechanism for issuance of visas for all foreigners is the same.”
Ms Khar is looking after the foreign ministry as state minister because the government has yet to appoint a full federal minister after the resignation of Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
In reply to another question, Ms Khar, who is also looking after the finance ministry, said that a number of other stakeholders were also involved in visa processing and the government had initiated a new programme to streamline the procedure for issuing visas to foreigners.
She advised members to get in touch with the foreign ministry spokesperson for information on the status of visas issued to Americans.
But she could not be contacted as she is part of a Pakistani delegation currently busy in strategic dialogue in the US.
A top government official said one year ago Pakistani security agencies had refused to give visa clearance to a big number of Americans, the stipulated procedure was suspended to skirt objections raised by different departments.
The official said when Pakistani intelligence agencies refused to give clearance to Americans, the US embassy in Islamabad, in a tit-for-tat response, stopped issuing visas to Pakistani officials. Subsequently, the issue came to the knowledge of both the Prime Minister and the President, on whose intervention, the Pakistan Ambassador in Washington Hussain Haqqani was allowed to issue visas to Americans without referring applications to the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad.
Otherwise, the official said, all visa applications were routed through the ministry of interior.
The official said, same arrangement continued to exist and Pakistan Ambassador to US had the authorisation to issue visas without seeking prior clearance from foreign and interior ministries. However, he said, the subject was under discussion and the ministry was pushing the government to revert to laid-down procedures.
Therefore, the official said, the ministry of foreign affairs didnt maintain any record about the number of visas issued or being issued to Americans. Referring to the Raymond Davis case, the official said the ministry didnt carry any information on the CIA operator and, therefore, it kept mum whether he enjoyed the diplomatic immunity or not.
