ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and the United States are in talks to resolve thevisa and the deportees’ issue, officials said on Friday.

Senior officials at the foreign ministry told The Nation that Washingtonwas not ready to give ‘unilateral concessions’.

“They want Pakistan to provide the same facilities to the Americans thatthey want for the Pakistanis from the US,” said one official.

Another official said that Pakistan believed the relaxation of visas andtheir validity and other matters should be bilateral. “We cannot force theUS to give us relaxations while we stick to strict rules. We arereconsidering our options,” he added.

This week, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the US had imposed novisa ban on Pakistanis. He however, said the US had banned visas for threehigh-level Pakistani officials including the joint secretary of the foreignministry.

“The ban was imposed for not taking back Pakistani immigrants who areillegally residing in US,” he added.

On the US deporting Pakistanis, the foreign minister said that 70 illegalimmigrants will be returning to Pakistan. “The United States has arranged aspecial chartered plane to send these immigrants back to Islamabad fromTexas. The individuals were detained and prosecuted for immigrationviolations, criminal conduct and other serious charges,” he elaborated.