Washington: Pakistan faces visa sanctions from the United States for refusing to take back Pak citizen deportees and visa overstayers in the US.
Reports say that the US State Department have not delved into the details as it is a bilateral issue of ongoing discussion between the US and Pakistan.
The US State Department imposes visa sanctions on certain countries that refuse to take back its citizens. The visa sanctions begin by first imposing it on officials of the ministry involved in taking back the citizens of the other country.
The sanctions then includes the family members of these officials and then to officials of other ministries of the country that refuse to take back its nationals.
A US State Department notification states, “The escalation scenarios that target family members of those officials and potentially officals of other ministries and then other catergories of applicants if initial sanctions do not prove effective at encouraging greater cooperation on removals by the targeted government.”
Meanwhile, former Pakistan Ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani, sad that the visa sanctions will be an obstacle for Pakistani citizens travelling to the US. He added that this could have been avoided had the Pakistani authorities respected the legal requirements for deportation of the United States.
Pakistan joins a list of countries against which the US has imposed visa sanctions and include Ghana, Guyana, Gambia, Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Myanmar and Laos.
