The US imposes sanction on Pakistan; may deny visas to Pakistanis

US has imposed sanctions on Pakistan after Islamab refused to take back its citizen deportees and visa over-stayers from America, warning that it may withhold visas of Pakistanis beginning from its senior officials.

State Department on Friday, April 26 said that consular operations in Pakistan remain unchanged as of w but as a result of such a sanction mentioned in a Federal Register tification dated April 22, US may withhold visas of Pakistanis beginning with its senior officials.

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Pakistan is latest to join list of 10 nations that have been imposed with sanctions under a US law according to which countries refusing to take back deportees and visa over-stayers will be denied American visas.

tably eight of se countries have been slapped with such visa sanctions under Trump ministration. Two of m Ghana and Pakistan have been included in list this year.

or countries include Guyana in 2001, Gambia in 2016, Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone in 2017, Burma and Laos in 2018.

Under Section 243 (d) of Immigration and Nationality Act, Secretary of State is required to discontinue granting immigration or n-immigrant visas to a nation upon receiving tice from Homeland Security Secretary that country has denied or is unreasonably delaying accepting a citizen, subject, national or resident of that country.

State Department tried to downplay impact of sanctions on Pakistan.

“Consular operations in Pakistan remain unchanged, a State Department Spokesperson told PTI when asked about federal register tification.

This is a bilateral issue of ongoing discussion between US and Pakistani governments and we are t going to get into specifics at this time, spokesperson ded.

Former Pakistan’s Ambassor to US, Hussain Haqqani, feels that this will make things difficult for Pakistanis.

This measure will create hardship for Pakistanis who want or need to travel to US and could have been avoided if Pakistani authorities h t igred American requests to respect ir legal requirements for deportation, Haqqani told PTI, days after federal register tification.

He said that Pakistan’s refusal to accept it’s citizen deported from US is t new.

Pakistan’s refusal to accept every Pakistani citizen deported from US is t new. It seems that US is longer willing to overlook a wide range of official Pakistani behaviour. Bonhomie has been replaced by sanctions and restrictions based on Islamab’s policy decisions, Mr. Haqqani said.

While law in this regard has been under existence since 1996, it is only in last several years that re h been increasing demand from lawmakers towards its enforcement against countries that h refused to accept deportees and visa over-stayers.

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In last few years, India has been taking such deportees on special planes at regular intervals.

Trump ministration after coming to power h said that it will strictly enforce such provisions by denying visas to people from those countries that refuse it accepting deportees and visa over-stayers.

While section 243 (d) of Immigration and Nationality Act was used only twice before 2017, Trump ministration has been effective in using this provision on many countries, including Pakistan.

However, State Department federal register tification indicates that number of visa denial under this sanction is far less.

Since law was modified to cover n-immigrant visas in 1996, 318 visa applicants have been affected, tification said.

During this same time period, tens of millions of aliens have received n-immigrant visas including, collectively, millions of applicants from 10 countries affected, tification said.

Federal Register tification said that re is set formula, though, tably State has never issued a blanket refusal for visas from country in question.

For some countries, sanctions begin by targeting officials who work in ministries responsible for accepting return of that country’s nationals with escalation scenarios that target family members of those officials and potentially officials of or ministries and n or categories of applicants if initial sanctions do t prove effective at encouraging greater cooperation on removals by targeted government, tification said.