Pakistani exhibitors, who are busy in the ‘Aalishan Pakistan’ exhibition in New Delhi, have faced difficulties in visa-related procedures, especially at the police-reporting stage.
“The exhibition has attracted huge crowds and is going according to plan,” an exhibitor told The Express Tribune over phone on condition of anonymity.
“But the late visa issuance and reporting requirements have created unnecessary problems for us.”
He said that the reporting procedure was the most challenging part of the trip. He added that Pakistani officials were adamant on non-reporting visas but eventually about 110 exhibitors had to pay a fine of $40 each for not reporting on time.
Exhibitors say the police reporting hassle wasted a lot of their time, as they had to leave their stalls for hours on Saturday so that the procedure could be completed.
Another exhibitor informed that the Indian officials charged just $40 per person instead of the $70 fine; otherwise, it could further agitate the exhibitors who were already stressed due to the hectic schedule.
According to the visa protocols of year 2012, both India and Pakistan are bound to give police reporting exemption on business visas, said an official, but this is first time since 2012 that India did not give police reporting exemption to our business delegation.
“When we reminded Indian officials about the visa agreements of 2012, they assured us to exempt police reporting,” he said. “But they took three days in doing that and eventually we had to go through this process to carry on with our exhibition.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2014.
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