Visas issued to Pakistanis witnessed a steep decline in 2017: MHA

The year 2017 experienced a great fall in the number of Pakistan visa application. The information was made public by Minister of State for Home (MHA) Kiren Rijiju in the Lok Sabha recently. However, the demand from Bangladesh has seen a tremendous increase this year. The reason for the downfall goes to increased bitterness between the two countries since the Pathankot attack that took place in January 2016. This was the time when Pakistani troopers tried entering the country which hampered the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan on a big level. The attack also resulted in rejection of Pakistan visa applications on security grounds.
Mr. Rijiju mentioned that a total of 34,445 Indian visas were issued to natives of Pakistan in the year 2017 as compared to 52,525 in the year 2016. He also informed that the number of visas issued to Bangladesh has improved and has recorded 1,289,332 in 2017 against 933,695 in 2016.


While many visas were rejected, thousands of applications were put on hold and are pending because of security approval. All these problems created by the militants have left a huge impact on both the countries.
Residents of both India and Pakistan have families across the borders. Besides, there are myriad religious spots in both the countries that people wish to visit. Not many must be aware of the fact that in the year 2012, both the countries signed a liberalised visa agreement suggesting a time-bound approval of visa to help increase trade and relationship between two countries.