The Federal Cabinet, on Tuesday, approved the extension of the online visa facility that is now available for the residents of 16 more countries.
A summary of the development that also sought the cabinet’s endorsement had been sent to the Interior Ministry in this regard.
Following the approval, the e-visa facility that was previously available for 175 countries will now be available to 191 countries and will allow their residents to apply for online visas in various categories including tourist, business, and student visas.
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The new visa facility had been approved in January last year to promote tourism in Pakistan. It allowed e-Visas to 175 countries, and visas on arrival to the residents of 50 countries as well as Britishers of Indian-origin and American citizens holding American or UK passports.
With these developments, internationally-approved tour operators were also allowed to bring tourist groups to Pakistan. It also made the procurement of work visas for business purpose convenient for the residents of 96 countries.
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Addressing the online visa launch ceremony in March last year, Prime Minister Imran Khan had termed the new visa regime as ‘a step towards Naya Pakistan’.
“This is the first step to open up the country, the Naya (new) Pakistan. Pakistan always had a mindset ‘make it as difficult as you can to grant anyone visas’, he had stated.”
Khan had vowed to make Pakistan a tourism destination for foreigners and had promised to establish new tourist destinations in KP and Balochistan.
