MANAMA: The ordeal for the visit visa for Pakistanis to enter Bahrain, which has entered into the fifth month, is likely to be resolved by the first quarter of 2019 at the earliest.
The24X7News Bahrain (www.twentyfoursevennews.com) has learnt that the situation will remain the same till February or March 2019. Informed sources at the Pakistan embassy revealed that the situation will not become normal unless the profiling of Pakistani residents get completed expected by the end of March 2019.
Bahraini authorities told the Pakistan embassy officials that profiling process of the residents is being done and likely to be completed by the end of the first quarter of next year. It may be recalled that the restrictions on the visit visa were imposed following a group of Pakistani passport holders busted by Bahraini security officials on suspicion and later the investigations revealed that the Pakistani passport holders were of another nationality.
“We have informed the Government back home that there should be thorough investigation to determine responsibility that how forged Pakistani passports were issued,” an official at the Pakistan embassy in Manama, said.
The visit visa restrictions were first imposed on July 11th, 2018 and since then 100s of applicants if not thousands stuck in the queue who are waiting for the processing of applications. In addition to bringing into the knowledge of the embassy of Pakistan in Manama, the issue was also raised during a meeting with HE Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan in Islamabad by a delegation from Bahrain. Now hopes are fading that something might ever happen which can help in easing of process of issuance of visit visa for Pakistanis.
The visit visa issue was discussed in detail by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister with his Bahraini counterpart, HE Shaikh Khalid bin Khalifa, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting few weeks back.
“We are becoming desperate to whom to contact for visa for my mother whose application is pending for the past 10 weeks,” a Pakistani family seeking anonymity said, adding that even now they were naturalized Bahrainis but how to get visit visa of our family members.
The situation of visit visa processing time is the same since the restrictions came into force, confirms by a visa clearance agent, adding that after keeping applications for over three months the documents now are being returned.
On a lighter note, Pakistani residents in Bahrain who have had high hopes from the new Government of Pakistan led by Honourable Prime Minister Imran Khan saying if this is a “Naya Pakistan” no Pakistani wants it.
