Pakistani Visa being sold for $300 in Kabul, Afghanistan
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*KABUL - Residents say they were lining up on daily bases at Pakistan embassy in Kabul to obtain visa but cannot acquire it easily unless they pay a bribe to relevant authorities.*
They said obtaining a visa for a person, particularly ailing individuals, consumes a lot of time and some even fail to get visa in repeated attempts.
“I am sick and it has been six days since I have come to obtain a visa, but didn’t receive it yet. I have been asked to pay up to 200 or 300 USD in bribe to get the visa,” said Mohammad Aziz who is a resident of Wardak province. “I can’t afford to pay that sum, why this issue can’t be solved.”
Despite the hardships, the visa seekers are sometimes also subjected to violence by police at the embassy gates.
The Interior Ministry, however, said that they have spread supervising the visa process at Pakistan embassy in Kabul and that recently, at least 10 individuals have been arrested on bribery charges in this regard.
“The Interior Ministry has ordered its intelligence department to speed up their overseeing process so that the bribery issues being addressed and the culprits being identified,” said the Ministry Deputy Spokesman Nasratullah Rahimi.
Most of the Afghans are fleeing to Pakistan due to unemployment and health issues, but they usually find it challenging to acquire Pakistani visa and it turns out to be an area of concern for many of them.
SOURCE: link
