Pakistan retaliates after US denies politician visa
ISLAMABAD : After the US delayed issuing a visa to the deputy chairman of Pakistan Senate, its chairman cancelled the trip and said no American congressman, delegation or diplomat will be welcomed in the country's parliament till further notice.
The US embassy delayed the visa to Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, reportedly due to his party's possible links with extremist groups. Haideri is secretary general of the Fazlur Rehman faction of JamiatUlema Islam, or JUI-F. The party was once close to the militant Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) before parting ways.
Haideri was scheduled to head a two-member delegation to a meeting of the Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU) at the United Nations headquarters in New York on February 13-14.
Senator Lt General (retd) Salahuddin Tirmizi – who was to accompany the deputy chairman – was granted a visa just two days before. But the visa of Haidri was put on hold in what was termed a technical refusal. The Senate Secretariat had applied for official visas for the senators two weeks ago.
When the secretariat checked with the embassy about the status of Haideri’s passport through official channels, it was told the US authorities would get back to it by Tuesday (February 14), clearly meaning that Haideri could not travel to the US to attend the conference. In its official statement earlier in the day, the Senate Secretariat claimed there was a delay in issuance of visa to the deputy chairman and the senate chairman Raza Rabbani had taken notice of the issue.
Rabbani issued directives to his secretariat not to entertain any US delegation or diplomat till the issue was resolved.
“No delegation, member of Congress or diplomat of the US will be welcomed by the senate of Pakistan, senate standing committees and the senators in their official capacity till this issue is resolved,” Rabbani said in a statement issued to media on Saturday. The US embassy’s spokesperson, when contacted, said: “We cannot comment on visa cases, due to privacy laws”.
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take up the issue with the US authorities.