Govt revises SOP for foreign missions

LAHORE:

The government has revised the criteria for all foreign missions in Pakistan in a bid to keep their diplomatic and non-diplomatic staff from straying into dangerous and forbidden areas and sharing their otherwise ‘sketchy’ movement details.

A circular listing the reworked standard operating procedure has been dispatched to all foreign diplomatic missions in Islamabad and their consulates and consulates general in the four provincial capitals. A copy has also been forwarded to the home secretaries of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir for its implementation. “It has been observed that the diplomats and non-diplomats of various missions based in Islamabad and the provincial capitals are increasingly carrying out unchecked movements within Pakistan and usually the information they provide for their intended visits is not precise and the actual purpose of their visits differs from what they state. These requests with incomplete and sketchy details are sent at the last minute, without observing any time frame for processing of the same,” reads the notice.

A detailed ‘visit pro forma’ has been designed to gather precise and relevant information about their movements. The circular includes the document along with strict instructions for observing the SOP for moving within the country.

All the missions and consulates general have been directed to send their requests to the ministry of foreign affairs for visiting ‘open areas’ seven working days prior, and in the case of prohibited areas, the request must be submitted 20 working days prior. Open areas consist of the entire country minus the areas declared ‘prohibited’.

Also attached with the circular is the list of prohibited areas in Punjab, Balochistan, G-B and AJK, as well as around the borders with India, Afghanistan and China, the tribal areas and the Karachi harbour.

The pro forma asks the diplomats and non-diplomats to mention the name of the mission they are attached with, their diplomatic or identity card number, passport number, areas they intend to visit, complete address of places or areas to be visited, dates and duration of stay and tentative time and date of arrival with places mentioned for the purpose of the visit.

“We have received a copy of the circular from the foreign affairs ministry and were told to ensure its implementation,” said an official of the Punjab Home Department. “We are doing what we have been told to do.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2016.