Support to South Asian varsity conditional: Pak

Pakistan has put a spanner in the setting up of the proposed South Asian University in India saying its support to the varsity was conditional till all issues relating to free movement of teachers and students were resolved, even as it imposed restrictions on Indians travelling on SAARC visa exemption stickers to the country.

The setting up of the SAF university was announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit attended among others by the Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz with an aim to promote the spirit of 'full regional connectivity' unilateral liberalisation of visas for students, teachers, professors, journalists and patients from member states.

Islamabad has informed the SAARC Secretariat that its support for the proposal of establishing the main campus of SAF would be conditional till all issues pertaining to free movement of students, teachers, visiting professors and faculty members are resolved.

The main complaint of Pakistan was that India violated norms in respecting SAARC visa exemptions granted to 33 categories of people, including parliamentarians, judges of higher judiciary and businessmen.

In retaliation, Pakistan has imposed reciprocal restrictions on Indian nationals travelling on SAARC Visa Exemption Stickers. The Pakistan foreign affairs ministry had conveyed the decision to the SAARC Secretariat, local daily Dawn quoted officials in Islamabad as saying.

The SAARC Secretariat has informed the member states about it, they added.

Pakistan said that it had taken the decision to exempt Indians after exhausting all options to find an amicable solution to the breach of the agreed procedures and guidelines.

It had, however, indicated that it would be ready to lift the restrictions at any time on reciprocal basis, the officials said.

Indian officials serving at the secretariat would also need to comply with these additional measures.

The provocation for Pakistan to impose the restrictions on Indians was that the Indian immigration authorities introduced additional 'restrictive measures' on Pakistani delegates attending SAARC meetings in India in September 2006, limiting the validity of the stickers and restricting their movement to a few specific cities, the officials said.

Even Pakistani officials serving at the secretariat had to conform to the restrictive measures, they added.

Under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme introduced in March 1992 the holder of the sticker is entitled to one-month stay without restrictions on the number of cities to be visited, the officials said.

Indian officials while reacting to Pakistan said that it was often found that those entitled for the facility used expired stickers. Also India has restricted the travel to three cities instead of unlimited number of cities following allegations that the 'facility was being misused.'

Reacting to the news of Pakistan imposing the restrictions on Indians visiting under SAARC stickers, the official said very negligible number of Indians used the facility as most of the visitors came on regular visa.