PAKPAC Delegate Meets the US Ambassador to Pakistan and the Embassy Staff.

The Pakistani-American Public Affairs Committee delegate met with US Ambassador to Pakistan, Nancy Powell, and Counselor General of the embassy of the United States of America along with a meeting with the assistant mission director and other embassy staff. The Pakistani-American Public Affairs Committee had a detailed discussion on the following issues and placed the Pakistani-American Communities’ perspective to the US embassy.

A) A detailed discussion was held on the visa difficulties and the high rejection rate of people of Pakistan applying for US visas. This included discussion on visitor visa, J1 visas for physicians, H1 visas, student visas and all other types of visas as well.

Concerns and examples of multiple different cases and the problems that are faced by the people of Pakistan because of visa rejection were discussed in detail and also strategies were discussed to try and work towards expediting the FBI clearance process for visas.

B) A discussion was held about the travel advisory to Pakistan and the consideration of removal of travel advisory from the large metropolitan areas of Pakistan including the cities of Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad was discussed.

C) A detailed discussion was held about the continuation of the US involvement in helping with the healthcare infrastructure development in Pakistan, and also the involvement of the USAID project and increasing the USAID in the areas of disaster management, public health infrastructure buildup in the country.

D) Important discussion was held and the Pakistani American perspective was discussed for the ongoing US involvement in the basic education and improvement of the resources development from the US for educational infrastructure in Pakistan including basic level of education, but also including higher education setup in Pakistan.

E) Further discussions were held on the importance of Pakistan and United States bilateral relationship and the importance of improving the Pakistan’s economy with the US investment.

F) There was discussion about protecting the regional balance of power in South Asia, and the importance of peaceful resolution of Kashmir crisis for the development and improvement in the lives of the people of Pakistan.

The meeting continued for almost two hours and views were exchanged in a cordial, constructive and open manner.