Daily Times

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MoIB) through External Publicity Wing has issued 250 visas, 85 border crossing NOCs and 35 media coverage requests since last month. The ongoing facilitation was provided to the international media from all over the globe, apart from inviting a high-level media delegation from Europe and India to have their interactions with civil and military leaderships, followed by an on-ground visit to Torkham border, said a press release issued here Thursday.

Under the directives and authorization of the Prime Minister Imran Khan, duly requested by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, to facilitate, evacuate and granting visas to all those foreign journalists working in Afghanistan or intending to visit there for media coverage. A dedicated special facilitation desk Foreign Media has been established in External Publicity Wing (EP) which was working round the clock, within available limited, EP Wing has received hundreds of visa requests from London, Berlin, Beijing, Washington, Ottawa, Brussels, Paris, Seoul, Moscow, New York,The Hague, Stockholm, Bangkok, Cairo, Dubai, New Delhi and many other stations for crossing, coverage and transit to Afghanistan. This desk has so far issued 250 visas, 85 border crossing NOCs and 35 media coverage requests as of today. International media houses including CNN, BBC, The Independent, Guardian, ZDG, Sky News, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera, Kyodo, NHK, CGTN, France 24, CBC, CTV, ABC, NBC, El PAIS, TV2, RAI News and many others have approached Pakistan press sections abroad and other missions.

The EP Wing desk is working on round the clock basis in collaboration with Ministries of interior, foreign affairs, Pakistan embassy in Kabul and ISPR, for exclusive facilitation to the media persons. In addition, many journalists who were stuck in Afghanistan have also been evacuated enabling them to enter Pakistan on humanitarian grounds, with the assistance of the Ministry of Interior. It is pertinent to mention that recommendation letters for the visa grant are being processed in one day. NOCs for crossing the border in hours, while the media coverage requests at the border are being processed in a couple of days which were not possible even in a couple of months previously.