United States has imposed sanctions on Pakistan and may deny visas to Pakistanis. The development comes after refusal of Islamabad in taking back its citizen deportees and visa over-stayers.
However, consular operations in Pakistan will not be changed immediately even after a sanction has been mentioned in a Federal Register notification dated April 22.
Under a US law those countries which refuses taking back deportees and visa over-stayers are to face sanctions and ten nations including Pakistan have been listed.
Eight of the 10 nations have been imposed such sanctions under Trump administration. Pakistan and Ghana have been lately listed in 2019.
Guyana was imposed sanction in 2001 and Gambia in 2016. In 2017 Cambodia, Guinea, Eritrea and Sierra Leone were listed. Laos and Burma were slapped last year.
Under Section 243 (d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act the Secretary of State discontinues granting of immigration or non-immigration visas to such countries following notice received from Homeland Security Secretary that accepting citizen has been denied or delayed unreasonably.
A State Department Spokesperson said, “This is a bilateral issue of ongoing discussion between the US and Pakistani governments and we are not going to get into the specifics at this time.”
Former Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani, said the move will create hardship to Pakistanis seeking to travel to US.
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