ISLAMABAD: To allow or not to allow a free flow of foreign tourists in the country through a liberal visa policy and the status of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) formed part of Wednesday’s debate in the National Assembly between the ruling party’s incumbent and former interior ministers.

The brief debate on the two sensitive issues took place when Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNA Dr Shireen Mazari raised them through a point of order while taking advantage of the presence of Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal and his predecessor Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in the house.

“If there are security concerns, it does not mean that Pakistan should be shut for foreigners,” Mr Iqbal said while defending his ministry’s recent decision of offering visa on arrival to tourists from 24 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, reversing yet another decision taken by former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar.

Khursheed Shah slams Punjab CM for clapping in presence of Zainab’s father at press conference

Mr Iqbal explained that such visas would be issued only to the tourists through designated tour operators after a security check, and policy guidelines in this regard had also been prepared.

Ruling out the possibility of misuse of the policy like in the past, the minister categorically stated that no official of any spy agency like Blackwater or any security contractor could enter the country.

“It does not mean that every Tom, Dick and Harry will be able to come to Pakistan,” he said, adding that the main purpose of reintroducing this visa policy was to “facilitate” only foreign tourists and promote tourism in the country that had recently been declared an “emerging tourists destination”.

Mr Iqbal also defended the government’s recent move to allow INGOs to continue their operations in the country till a final decision on their appeals against cancellation of their registration. There was an anomaly in the procedure for registration of INGOs which his ministry had now removed, he added.

The minister said the INGOs had been given 90 days to file an appeal against the government decision to cancel their registration, whereas under the rules such organisations were required to leave the country within 60 days.

He wondered how could an INGO be asked to wind up its operations in two months when they had three months to file an appeal. He claimed that some of the INGOs were rendering great services and contributing to the country’s development. He made it clear that no organisation found working against the country’s interests would be allowed to operate here.

Taking the floor soon after Mr Iqbal’s speech, Chaudhry Nisar said he had revoked the visa-on-arrival policy because it had been massively misused in the past, especially during the Musharraf regime.

Amidst desk-thumping by some of the opposition members, Chaudhry Nisar said he had issued the directives that visa on arrival should be a bilateral affair. He was of the view that if a Pakistani parliamentarian was required to visit the embassy of a country for a visa then MPs of that country should also be required to visit Pakistan’s embassy.

Moreover, he added, he had ended the disparity in visa fees by announcing that Pakistan would charge the same fee from the visitor of a particular country which a Pakistani had to pay to get the visa of that country.

Chaudhry Nisar alleged that hundreds of foreigners, who were huge security risks for the country, had entered Pakistan during the Musharraf regime. He asked the minister to present complete data in this regard, saying that otherwise he would himself release these details. He suggested to Mr Iqbal to continue this policy without succumbing to any pressure.

The former minister said there should be no politics on issues relating to national security. Saying that no one was against the INGOs, he called for holding a full-fledged debate on the issue of INGOs. He said he was happy to see that the government was still following his policies regarding the INGOs.

Differing from Chaudhry Nisar’s argument about the visa fee, Mr Iqbal said the government needed to take steps to attract tourists and not to discourage them, adding that other countries were also giving incentives to attract tourists and Pakistan should compete with them.

At the outset of the session, Leader of the Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah lashed out at Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for holding a news conference on Tuesday night to announce the arrest of the killer of Zainab and termed his behaviour “shameful”.

Mr Shah expressed his annoyance over clapping by the chief minister at the news conference in the presence of Zainab’s father and asked him to apologise to the nation for hurting the feelings of 200 million people of the country.

Mr Shah alleged that over 1,200 incidents of child molestation had been reported only in Punjab in two years and the number of such cases in Kasur stood at 66 during 2016, but nobody had been arrested so far.

Later, the house witnessed an interesting scene when a treasury member Bilal Virk pointed out lack of quorum to prevent the opposition from taking the floor to respond to the speech of his colleague and MNA from Kasur Waseem Akhtar, who in his hard-hitting speech had lashed out at the PPP, PTI and the MQM for using the Zainab case for political purposes. He alleged that the PTI workers were involved in ransacking the public property in Kasur.

The deputy speaker readily adjourned the sitting till Thursday morning when the opposition members were demanding the floor to respond to Mr Akhtar’s speech.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2018