KARACHI: Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has said that hehas visited Karachi twice and has found it much safer place.
While responding to a question after his interaction with businessmen andmedia persons here at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI)officer on Saturday afternoon, Mr. Bisaria said, “Karachi is much saferplace. I have visited it twice.”
Indian High Commissioner to Islamabad said that when relations are strainedtrust building process should be started by taking the small steps. “We aretaking small steps to build trust after which taking bigger steps willbecome easier,” he said.
“Previously some incidents made the relations between two neighboringcounties strained after which the visa police was tightened but we aretaking small steps and have started to relax the visa regime forhumanitarian cases,” Bisaria said, adding this step will be followed by asoft visa policy for elders and kids.
To a question regarding the harassment of Pakistani diplomats in Indian,Bisaria said that this topic should not be discussed because theunfortunate issue has been resolved through diplomatic efforts. “Both thecountries will strictly follow the rules of Vienna convention,” he said.
“There have always been windows of opportunities,” Bisaria thanked toPakistan for the release of Indian citizen Jitandra, who was released a dayearlier.
Commenting on the incident of Ali Garh University India, Indian HighCommissioner said that people of both the countries should respect leadersof each other.
Commenting on the CPEC, the Indian High Commissioner said that he wouldn’tcomment on its legalities but connectivity anywhere in the region willbenefit the whole south Asia. “We may see a great deal of positivity,” hesaid and added, “There are events that hurdles but there are positivity aswell.”
Indian high Commissioner stressed that there should be a pressure group andcontinuous lobbying to push both the government to go for normalization ofrelations. “We have less than $7billion of bilateral trade whereas there ispotential of $30billion trader between the two neighboring countries, whichhave a great lesson in the form of recent event between North and SouthKorea,” Mr. Bisaria said.
When some traders complained regarding unnecessary reporting – which isamount to harassment – at Hotels, Indian High Commissioner said he willtake up this issue with concerned authorities in India.
To query about the visit of Indian Cricket team to Pakistan, the IndianHigh Commissioner said that he is hoping that this visit will occur verysoon. “But when specifically? It is a million dollar question, which Ican’t answer,” he said.
In the end of the program Chairman of the ruling group Siraj Terli andPresident of KCCI Muafssar Malik presented bouquets to the guest.