Senior journalists of the Karachi Press Club and The Mumbai Press Club jointly urged the governments of Pakistan and India on Tuesday to ensure all promises made at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit are kept, including flexibility of visa for citizens of both sides. A 22-member delegation of Indian journalists of The Mumbai Press Club had arrived in the city on Monday. The delegation – including its head Jatin Desai, The Mumbai Press Club President Gurbir Singh, Marathi language newspaper Lokmat’s group editor Dinkar Raikar, The Mumbai Press Club Chairman and Sakal Group’s political editor Prakash Akolkar and The Mumbai Press Club Secretary Sunil Shivdasani – visited the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday.
“Both countries must adopt all promises made at the SAARC Summit as they will bring the people of both countries closer,” Dinkar Raikar said on the occasion. Later talking to Pakistan Today, the veteran Indian journalist said that the people of both countries want to read news from across the border, but the Pakistani government is allowing only two Indian journalists to stay in the country and work for Indian newspapers and television channels and the Indian government is also doing the same to the Pakistani media. “There are hundreds of newspapers and television channels in both countries that want to appoint their correspondent in Islamabad and New Delhi, but both governments are not allowing more than two journalists; this must be reconsidered,” said Desai.
He said that any Pakistani journalist appointed in New Delhi cannot visit other cities to cover major stories and the same is the case with Indian journalists working in Islamabad. On the occasion, the two press clubs signed a memorandum of understanding under which members from both sides will visit each other’s club after alternate years and accommodate the visiting journalists.
