Daily Times

Canadian Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen is expected to undertake his first-ever official visit to Pakistan next month.

Pakistan High commissioner to Canada Tariq Azeem confirmed to Daily Times on phone that dates for the visit of the Canadian minister were being worked out by both governments.

This would be the first-ever visit by any Canadian immigration minister to Pakistan during which issues related to Pakistani immigrants in Canada and tight Canadian visa regime for Pakistan would be the focus of talks. “There is over 300,000 Pakistanis living across Canada and they are contributing to the development of Canada and also act as a bridge between Ottawa and Islamabad,” Pakistan high commissioner told Daily Times from Ottawa.

A diplomatic source in the Pakistani Foreign Office told Daily Times that Pakistan would take up the issue of tight visa rules for Pakistani citizens, particularly for students, patients, businessmen and family visas with the immigration minister.

The Canadian government has extraordinarily tightened visa rules for Pakistani citizens, and original time duration of six weeks sometimes goes to six months, while passports of applicants are also kept by the High Commission in Islamabad. Furthermore, visa processing system has been moved out of Pakistan, which is yet another reason for the delay.

Even visas for diplomatic passport holders are also delayed over which Pakistan has officially conveyed its concern through diplomatic channels to Ottawa, a source said.

Pakistani citizens working in different private and public sector organisations even media persons, who have been invited by various Canadian organisations with complete documents, are facing difficulties and delays in getting Canadian visa timely.”I had an official invitation from Canadian Foreign Office in Ottawa for an officially sponsored short-term course in Montreal by the Canadian government, but was refused the visa by the High Commission in Islamabad with the reason that the applicant did not have a strong linkage to his home country,” a Pakistani citizen employed with a foreign NGO told Daily Times on the condition of anonymity.

Published in Daily Times, October 14^th 2018.