ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has imposed travel restrictions on Indian nationals with SAARC-marked passports in retaliation for similar controls by India on Pakistani nationals, the Dawn reported on Thursday.

Under a 1992 SAARC Visa Exemption agreement, holders of passports with a sticker of the regional group can visit any of the seven member-countries for a month at a time, without any restrictions on where they travel within that country.

In recent months, Indian immigration officials have started imposing restrictions on the number of cities Pakistani SAARC sticker-passport holders can visit. They are also cutting the duration of the visit.

Writes to headquarters

The Pakistan Foreign Ministry has written to the SAARC headquarters in Kathmandu that it was taking tit-for-tat action against Indian nationals after exhausting all other avenues for an amicable way out.

An official at the Indian High Commission confirmed that Indian immigration authorities were imposing restrictions on Pakistani SAARC sticker-passport holders. He said New Delhi had reservations about some Pakistan-issued SAARC stickers.

India had raised this concern when the issue came up for discussion at meetings of SAARC officials, including during the New Delhi summit last month, and demanded a streamlining of procedures for issuing the stickers, the official said.

Row

The row may affect a proposal for setting up of the main campus of the South Asian University in India. The Dawn said Pakistan had made it clear that its support for the proposal would be conditional to the free movement of teachers, students, and visiting faculty.

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