Nearly 55,000 visas granted to Chinese businessmen in 2018: Pakistan

While commenting on the inauguration of new visa system by Prime Minister Imran Khan for five countries, including China, Pakistan Ambassador to China Masood Khalid said that the new visa regime is an important initiative which would attract more tourists and businessmen from across the world and further expressed the confidence that the number of Chinese tourists would further grow in months to come.

The increasing number of tourists from China is a manifestation of the fact that relations between the two countries are growing at a fast pace, Radio Pakistan quoted the ambassador as saying. Pakistan had been working to update its visa policy from past couple of months.

The PM is also expected to announce a new visa policy for 170 countries in order to attract tourists and investors. Earlier on Thursday, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that in the initial phase of its policy to relax visa policies, they have decided to extend e-visa facility to citizens of five countries, including Turkey, China, Malaysia, United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirates.

The facility will then be extended to citizens of 170 countries if the pilot project succeeds, Chaudhry added.

The government has also chalked out a visa policy for foreign journalists, specifically those from western countries and it is hoped that the move will make it easier for Pakistani journalists to get visas of other countries as well. Chaudhry further said that the government will write to Indian authorities, urging them to grant visas to Pakistani journalists who wanted to cover the upcoming Indian elections.