Centre clears liberalised visa regime for Pak citizens

Preparing the ground for home secretary-level talks by the end of next month, the government on Thursday cleared a liberalised visa regime for Pakistani citizens and placed the hotline for home secretaries (HS) of the two countries on the fast track.

Preparing the ground for home secretary-level talks by the end of next month, the government on Thursday cleared a liberalised visa regime for Pakistani citizens and placed the hotline for home secretaries (HS) of the two countries on the fast track.

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Last year, the home secretaries had decided to set up a hotline to enable them to exchange information about terror plots on a real-time basis. New Delhi doesn’t expect the hotline to make too much of a difference in real terms, but agrees that the direct phone connection is high on symbolism.

“The discussions are in the final stages… the attempt is to get the phone line working before the HS-level talks or soon after,” a home ministry official said.

The official told HT that Islamabad had accepted New Delhi’s suggestion to hold the home secretary-level talks around May-end or in early June. Delhi had sought a change of dates for the HS-level talks because April 16 — which was proposed by Islamabad earlier — clashed with the chief minister’s conference.

The talks, to be held in Islamabad, is expected to have home secretary RK Singh asking his Pakistani counterpart, K Siddique Akbar, to keep promises made over the last two years — including action against terror suspect Hafiz Saeed.

The two countries are expected to sign a new visa regime that would encourage better people-to-people contact. The CCS on Thursday cleared the decks for the agreement.