Visa issue: Visit of delegation to US for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui release highly improbable

ISLAMABAD, Dec 02, (SABAH): The visit of the Pakistani delegation to the US for talk on the release of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is highly improbable now due to issues on issuance of visa.

The lawyer of Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui, Imran Shafique after the hearing of Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui’s petition here on Monday told the media outside the court premises that now it is required that the delegation gets a new category of visa, which is almost difficult as the passports of the delegation members are at the embassy.

He said the bureaucrats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) are not discharging their responsibilities to properly guide about the visa issues and related matters.

He said the single bench of Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan heard the petition. The court expressed displeasure that the minor bureaucratic hurdles are causing frequent delays.

He said; however, the positive outcome was that the government has told the court that it is willing to bear the expenses of the visit of the delegation.

He said now there are about four days left and it requires redoubling the efforts on the side of bureaucracy to ensure securing the visa; otherwise, this whole exercise would be wasted. The case was now adjourned to December 13.