KARACHI: Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has said that he has visited Karachi twice and has found it much safer place.
While responding to a question after his interaction with businessmen and media persons here at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) officer on Saturday afternoon, Mr. Bisaria said, “Karachi is much safer place. I have visited it twice.”
Indian High Commissioner to Islamabad said that when relations are strained trust building process should be started by taking the small steps. “We are taking small steps to build trust after which taking bigger steps will become easier,” he said.
“Previously some incidents made the relations between two neighboring counties strained after which the visa police was tightened but we are taking small steps and have started to relax the visa regime for humanitarian cases,” Bisaria said, adding this step will be followed by a soft 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 the unfortunate issue has been resolved through diplomatic efforts. “Both the countries will strictly follow the rules of Vienna convention,” he said.
“There have always been windows of opportunities,” Bisaria thanked to Pakistan for the release of Indian citizen Jitandra, who was released a day earlier.
Commenting on the incident of Ali Garh University India, Indian High Commissioner said that people of both the countries should respect leaders of each other.
Commenting on the CPEC, the Indian High Commissioner said that he wouldn’t comment on its legalities but connectivity anywhere in the region will benefit the whole south Asia. “We may see a great deal of positivity,” he said and added, “There are events that hurdles but there are positivity as well.”
Indian high Commissioner stressed that there should be a pressure group and continuous lobbying to push both the government to go for normalization of relations. “We have less than $7billion of bilateral trade whereas there is potential of $30billion trader between the two neighboring countries, which have a great lesson in the form of recent event between North and South Korea,” Mr. Bisaria said.
When some traders complained regarding unnecessary reporting – which is amount to harassment – at Hotels, Indian High Commissioner said he will take up this issue with concerned authorities in India.
To query about the visit of Indian Cricket team to Pakistan, the Indian High Commissioner said that he is hoping that this visit will occur very soon. “But when specifically? It is a million dollar question, which I can’t answer,” he said.
In the end of the program Chairman of the ruling group Siraj Terli and President of KCCI Muafssar Malik presented bouquets to the guest.