A brand new visa regime, the centrepiece of which are two categories of business visas, is likely to be signed when External Affairs Minister S M Krishna travels to Islamabad tomorrow on a special flight, on which Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and 75 Indian journalists are also scheduled to be on board.
The signature on a more open visa regime with Pakistan’s foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, is significant because it signals the decision of Delhi and Islamabad to take pro-people matters out of the hands of hardline political representatives such as former home minister P Chidambaram and Rehman Malik, special advisor to Pakistan President Asif Zardari. Both had stalled the signature, though the part has been ready since November 2011.
In fact, Krishna’s trip is turning into a test case for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Pakistan later this year, possibly in November. Krishna, scheduled to visit Lahore and Islamabad, would be given the status of a VVIP by the Pakistan government — par with the status given to prime ministers and kings. He would visit religious shrines and memorials with political significance.
According to sources, if things go according to plan in Islamabad, Krishna would visit the Minar-i-Pakistan in Lahore, the memorial commemorating the founding of the state of Pakistan. Since former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s path-breaking visit to the memorial in 1999, this is the first time an Indian leader in office would visit the Minar-i-Pakistan.
In Lahore, Krishna is likely to visit the shrine of Sufi saint Data Durbar, as well as the samadhi of the greatest Sikh ruler of undivided Punjab, Ranjit Singh. He would also meet the current ruler of Punjab (in Pakistan), Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, brother of former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
But it is in Islamabad that a new foundation of the India-Pakistan relationship is likely to be laid over the next couple of days, with the new visa regime slated to overhaul the tightly-controlled procedures in place since 1974.
The two business visa categories form the centrepiece of the new regime, in keeping with the new-found determination of both countries to pursue new openings in trade and economic interaction.
This year, Pakistan granted India ‘most favoured nation’ status, steadily dismantling the positive list in favour of the negative list approach. From trading only items on the positive list, both sides can now trade all items, except those on the negative list.
Category A of the business visa regime is applicable to tradesmen and small entrepreneurs whose profits, as shown in income-tax documents, are between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 30 lakh. This visa would allows traders to visit four cities in a year, albeit with police reporting at the entry point.
Category B caters to larger business houses and bigger entrepreneurs, whose profits on income-tax documents exceed Rs 3 million annually. This visa allows traders multi-entry visits to 10 cities in a year and, significantly, exempts them from police reporting.
The visa regime also includes a new category, the group tourist visa, through which tour operators can bring group tourists to both countries. In addition, there is a visa-on-arrival category for senior citizens (aged more than 65 years), but only at the Attari-Wagah border in Punjab. This addresses the needs of senior citizens with memories of either their own childhood in pre-partition Punjab or that of their parents who crossed the border in 1947.
On the eve of Krishna’s visit, the finance ministry today notified a 30 per cent reduction in the Indian sensitive list. This means only 674 items remain on India’s preferential tariff list (earlier, the number was 878).
The items removed from this high-tariff list include textiles, Pakistan’s most competitive export. It also means 90-91 per cent of all goods Pakistan wants to trade with India can now come through the South Asian Free Trade Area preferential route, on which a tariff of only eight per cent is applicable.
Official sources said trade and economic sub-groups had succeeded in creating substantial buzz around the economic relationship between the two nations.