Visa restrictions dampen spirit of the ‘India Expo’

Several participants complain about the delay in issuing visas.

KARACHI: The second ‘India Expo’ – a three-day exhibition – has commenced with an aim to strengthen bilateral trade relations between India and Pakistan. But the atmosphere was dampened as many Indian business executives who applied for the Pakistani visa could not come owing to non-issuance or delays.

Despite all the hurdles, Indian participants are hopeful that visas and other obstacles in bilateral trade of the two neighbours will be resolved soon.

Federation of Indian Exporting Organisation (FIEO), Joint Deputy Director General, Chandranath Som told The Express Tribune, “I can tell you that there is a tremendous amount of interest in the Indian community to do business with Pakistan and we have received a similar response from Karachi.”



There are 33 Indian companies participating in the exhibition which will be concluded on Sunday. Companies that are taking part in the exhibition are from diverse sectors such as textiles, spices, dairy and foods, cosmetics, footwear, jewellery and electrical equipments.

The exhibition is being supported by FIEO and Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI). FIEO is an apex body of Indian export promotion organisations. It was set up jointly by the ministry of commerce, government of India and the private trade and industry in the year 1965.

Indian businessmen participating in the ‘India Expo’ said that getting the visa on the last minute and taking a connecting flight from Dubai and Colombo is very costly and creates unnecessary problems.

Commenting on the difficulty of travelling, Hashimsons Abdul Rahim Khatri, a garment exporter from Mumbai said, “We got our passports just two days before the inauguration due to which a lot our colleagues had to cancel their trip. India and Pakistan must do away with these trivial issues if they want to benefit from each other’s trade potential.”

Dejected exhibitors said they were not expecting visa issues from Nawaz Sharif’s government as they believed his pro-business stance would ease visa restrictions for the business community. This time Indian participants were only granted a visa for 5-days as compared to the 15-day visa last year.

KCCI’s leadership, while inaugurating the second ‘India Expo’, said that the business communities of Pakistan and India must force their respective governments to improve trade relations. “The business communities of both countries must ask their respective governments, armies and bureaucracies to resolve all issues,” said KCCI former president Siraj Kassam Teli.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2013.

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