Pakistanis without visa barred from entering Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD/KABUL: Afghan authorities on Sunday said that no Pakistani citizen would be permitted to enter the country without having valid travel documents.

The new order has come into effect from January 1, 2017, reported the Gulf News.

The report further added that hundreds of Pakistanis who had gone to Afghanistan have returned via the Torkham border after the announcement on Sunday.

However, officials said the residents of Landikotal have been exempted from this order. They would continue to travel to Afghanistan with passport and visa as their permit would remain valid for crossing the Pak-Afghan border.

The so-called easement rights cater to the needs of people living in the border areas in both Afghanistan and Pakistan as they are related to each other and have to attend social events.

However, they, on the request of the Afghan and Pakistani businessmen, extended the deadline twice.

Banners were displayed at various points in Torkham reminding Pakistani nationals that from Jan.1, 2017 they would not be permitted to cross the Torkham border and enter Afghanistan without legal travel documents. Extra contingents of the security personnel have been deployed at the Torkham border crossing to implement the new policy.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah invited new Pakistani Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa to visit Kabul.

The Inter-Services Public Relations chief Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said that General Bajwa telephoned Afghan President, chief executive and his Afghan counterpart on Saturday and felicitated them on the eve of New Year.