ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari has said that 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 that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is going to hold a meeting with his Kuwaiti counterpart, on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York, and will raise this issue with him.
The minister said that 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 that 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 that 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 that 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 that decisions should be made for the betterment of Pakistan instead of going for political point scoring.
He said that the country is facing huge circular debt and the report has presented solid solutions and recommendations to address this issue.
He urged the 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 that Balochistan witnessed a 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 Rs195 billion were released during the last five years.