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Senate Session: Visa problems in Kuwait to be taken up with authorities: Shireen Mazari
September 24, 2018

Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said visa problems being faced by Pakistani citizens living in Kuwait will be taken up with Kuwaiti authorities to address problems of overseas Pakistanis.

Responding to a calling attention notice in the Senate, she said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is going to hold a meeting with his Kuwaiti counterpart, on the sidelines of UN General Assembly session in New York, and will raise this issue with him.

The Minister said this issue will also be taken up during a two-day Pak-Kuwait Joint Ministerial Commission scheduled to be held in Islamabad on Thursday.

She said in 2011, Kuwait had unofficially banned visas to the nationals of various countries, which include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran on the pretext of their alleged involvement in drug trafficking and criminal offences.

Shireen Mazari said, on the other hand, Indian citizens are getting visas in large numbers and other privileges.

Responding to another calling attention notice, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad said the government is focusing on the development of Balochistan to bring the province at par with other federating units. 

Meanwhile, presenting a report on circular debt before the Senate,leader of the House Shibli Faraz said decisions should be made for the betterment of Pakistan instead of going for political point scoring.

He said the country is facing huge circular debt and the report has presented solid solutions and recommendations to address this issue.

He urged members to go through the report to give their suggestions to face challenges like growing circular debt decreasing water table, and increasing load-shedding.  

He also refuted any report of UNDP declaring Balochistan as the poorest province in the world.

He said Balochistan witnessed growth rate of over 13 per cent whereas it was 8.5 per cent in Punjab in recent years.

The Minister of State said that 195 billion rupees were released during the last five years.