Jindal violated visa to meet Nawaz in Murree

Jindal’s visa, bearing the number 769903, issued on April 25, allowed the holder to visit only Islamabad and Lahore

ISLAMABAD: Sajjan Jindal violated his visa specifications in order to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday, the Express Investigation Cell has learnt.

The Indian steel magnate headed straight to Murree upon arrival in Pakistan even though his visa did not specify that he could travel to the hill station.



The Pakistan-India visa regime allows citizens from the other country to only travel to areas specified on the visa. Jindal’s visa, bearing the number 769903, issued on April 25, 2017 allowed the holder to visit only Islamabad and Lahore.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif found himself caught in another storm on Thursday, this time over a furtive huddle with an Indian steel magnate which is being labelled as back-channel diplomacy.

An Indian delegation led by Sajjan Jindal – a close friend of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – met Premier Nawaz at his private residence in Murree on Wednesday, away from the media glare.



Although nothing has officially been shared about the context of this meeting, it is believed it was part of back-channel diplomacy to arrange a meeting between the Pakistani and Indian prime ministers on the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held in June in Astana, Kazakhstan. Pakistan and India are set to become full members of the SCO in the upcoming conference.

It is also being claimed that the Indian delegation delivered some message from Modi to Nawaz.

Although the government and ruling party initially kept mum about the meeting, speculation after private news media broke the story prompted the prime minister’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, to confirm the development on her Twitter account.

“Mr Jindal is an old friend of the prime minister. Nothing ‘secret’ about the meeting and [it] should not be blown out of proportion,” she tweeted.