Washington: Pakistani embassy in US has rejected the reports that US citizens of Pakistani origin are being denied visas to visit US.
The Pakistan-US embassy clarified in its post on X (formerly known as Twitter), that "There is no truth to the rumors about denial of visas to Pakistani Americans or requests for visa being rejected. This is a misinformation and disinformation”.
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Later, Pakistan embassy spokesperson said that Pakistani-Americans, and other overseas Pakistanis, are most welcome to visit their motherland.
The official added that the embassy was providing every possible consular assistance, including visas, to overseas Pakistanis.
This clarification came after the US State Department’s press briefing in which a question was raised regarding visas of Pakistani-Americans being rejected for travelling to their homeland.
The US State Department said it was up to the consular officials at the Pakistan Embassy to issue or reject a visa request by a US citizen, and it did not relate to them.
The issue was raised at a the US department’s Deputy Spokesperson’s news briefing in Washington on Tuesday, about recent media reports claiming that Pakistan Embassy had denied visas to US citizens of Pakistani origin because of their links to PTI.
The reports have also added that some US citizens were also detained in Pakistan for participating in political activities
The department’s Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said “I am not aware of this. Obviously, if there are any issues that arise in this area, certainly it would be something for Pakistani consular officials to speak to and not anything that relates to the State Department.”
When a reporter enquired further, the US official responded, "We will just leave it at that."
Meanwhile in the same press briefing, Mr. Patel was also questioned about whether the US Congress had requested that the State Department look into the cipher issue that led to the filing of legal charges against the former prime minister Imran Khan.
“We consult our congressional partners on a number of issues, we will not speak about something specifically”, replied the official.
He further added that US was monitoring the situation closely.
