Islamabad, December 18:

Pakistan and India are set to liberalise their visa policy from next month, doing away with the current city-specific flow of people.

Designed to allow unrestricted travel, the policy allows for seven-day open visas for businesspersons and tourists. The main understanding on visas was reached during the foreign secretary talks in New Delhi last month.

A formal agreement was likely to be signed on Jan 13 when the foreign ministers of the two countries hold talks in Islamabad to review the third round of the composite dialogue process.

Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said visa liberalisation was part of a tourism agreement that would be inked by Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee.

A senior interior ministry official was quoted as saying that Pakistan and India had agreed to increase the number of visa counters from the existing two to three. They also plan to issue over 1,000 visas daily to businesspersons and tourists.

“Under the new policy, citizens and businessmen of both countries would get a seven-day open visa with no restrictions on visiting a particular place. They would be allowed to move anywhere,” the official said. According to the proposed agreement, tourists would also be offered a 15-day visa if they visit as delegations or groups.” Earlier, Indian and Pakistani tourists were not given visas in groups,” the official pointed out.