Kuwait To Instantly Resume Visas For Pakistanis After A Decade

Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed announced on Sunday that Kuwait will immediately resume visas for Pakistan after 10 years break.

The minister stated this during a one-day visit to the gulf country for this very purpose.

As per the minister, he had a meeting with the Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah and conveyed special greetings from Prime Minister Imran Khan.

"There has been big progress in case of Kuwaiti visas that had been in a halt for Pakistanis since 2011. Both family and business visas between Pakistan and Kuwait will now be restored," he mentioned, in a statement on Twitter.

According to the minister, technical visas in the fields of medicine and oil will also have no restrictions and Pakistanis will now be able to get visas online and visit Kuwait, he added.

As per Rasheed, the Kuwaiti prime minister has observed that Pakistan and Kuwaiti ties are long-lasting for seven decades.

“Pakistani families, as well as the business community, experienced great difficulties with the Kuwaiti visa ban,” he tweeted, praising the role of Pakistani labour in the Kuwait development.

“Restoration of worker visas will lead to more employment opportunities for Pakistanis while the resumption of business visas will boost trade between the two countries.”

In the mid of March, the minister had announced that discussions were ongoing for Kuwaiti visas to be resumed for Pakistanis.

As per the Arab News, Kuwait had stopped issuing visas to nationals from few countries including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in 2011 owing to “difficult security conditions" in these countries.

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The interior minister's visit to Kuwait took place after Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s meeting with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah on the General Assembly’s Special Meeting on the Palestine issue in New York last week.