Pakistan Orders Review To Regulate Visas For Chinese Nationals

Pakistan says the two Chinese nationals who were murdered recently misused their business visa to preach religion.

Two missing Chinese nationals, Lee Zing Yang, 24, and Meng Li Si, 26. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@Roohan)

Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan directed his ministry on Monday to review, regulate and streamline the process of issuing visas to Chinese nationals after the unfortunate incident of abduction of two Chinese from the country, reported The News.

Khan said there was a need to review the process of granting visas to Chinese nationals and maintain a database of all Chinese nationals present in various parts of the country.

Currently it is easier and faster for a Chinese citizen to obtain visa compared to other countries. They also get visas for longer periods.

Khan said security of Chinese nationals visiting is a shared responsibility.

Where the government made every effort to provide security to foreigners, the visiting foreign nationals are equally bound to abide by terms and conditions of their visas. They should inform local authorities of their movement, essential to map out security requirements, if any.

Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, as reported by TheNews.

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Visa Misused, Says Pak Interior Ministry

The Interior Ministry named the two missing nationals as Lee Zing Yang, 24, and Meng Li Si, 26. Last week, Islamic State’s Amaq news agency said its members had killed them.

Instead of engaging in business activity, they went to Quetta and under the garb of learning (the) Urdu language from a Korean national, were actually engaged in preaching.

Interior Ministry in a statement

The ministry added that it was highly unfortunate that misuse of the terms of (the) business visa further contributed to the unfortunate incident of abduction and subsequent murder of the two.

With the aim of bringing more strictness and care to issuance of visas, the minister asked all Pakistani missions to undertake scrutiny of applications and get all necessary details before exercising granting visas to foreign nationals, reported Geo TV.

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Dailytimes reported that the statement didn’t provide more details on their preaching activities. It was also unclear if their bodies had been found or not.

The kidnapping or murder of Chinese nationals in Pakistan is rare. The countries have had a long history of solid ties.

China has pledged to invest $57 billion in Pakistan in projects linked to its “One Belt, One Road” infrastructure plan, aimed at linking China with the Middle East and Europe.

However, Chinese investment has come with frequent requests for Pakistan to improve security.