ISLAMABAD-
Pakistan has told both Indian journalists stationed in Islamabad that they must leave within a week, the journalists told Reuters on Wednesday, saying they had been informed that their visas would not be renewed.
The move came amid simmering tensions between Pakistan’s powerful military and a civilian government that appears dovish towards archrival India, where Hindu nationalist opposition leader Narendra Modi appears set to win a general election.
Late on Tuesday night, Snehesh Alex Philip of The Press Trust of India and Meena Menon of The Hindu received letters telling them that their visas would not be renewed. No reason was given. Both had been in Pakistan for less than a year.
Pakistan has become an increasingly dangerous place for journalists to operate, but restrictions put on Indian reporters’ movements are stricter than for other foreign journalists.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has repeatedly said publicly that he wants to improve relations with India and has pledged to improve press freedoms. But Pakistan’s military remains deeply suspicious of both journalists and India.
The governments of the two countries have a reciprocal arrangement allowing two correspondents from each country to be stationed in the other’s capital.
Pakistani journalists face much greater threats than foreigners. At least 34 Pakistani journalists have been killed for their work since Pakistan returned to democracy in 2008, but in only one case has the killer been convicted.
Last year, the government expelled a reporter from The New York Times.
Dear Editor saheb,
This is not a news that the visa of two Indian journalists were not extended. They already spent a considerable time in Pakistan and if their visas are not extended please don’t make it a news. Do you know that dozens of Pakistanis, old and young, even women are denied India visas every week by the Indian Government. If rejection of visa extension to two Indians is an international news don’t you think that denial of dozens of visas to Pakistanis is also a news.
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"The governments of the two countries have a reciprocal arrangement allowing two correspondents from each country to be stationed in the other’s capital."
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What part of that statement was difficult for your brain to absorb ???
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It's a decision handed down by the brass …
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No Progress Allowed in bi-lateral relations …
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