The US has imposed sanctions on Pakistan after Islamabad 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.
The State Department on Friday said that consular operationsin Pakistan remain “unchanged” as of now but as a result of such a sanctionmentioned in a Federal Register notification dated April 22, the US maywithhold visas of Pakistanis beginning with its senior officials.
Pakistan is the latest to join the list of 10 nations thathave been imposed with sanctions under a US law according to which countriesrefusing to take back deportees and visa over-stayers will be denied Americanvisas.
Notably eight of these countries have been slapped with suchvisa sanctions under the Trump administration. Two of them Ghana and Pakistanhave been included in the list this year.
The other countries include Guyana in 2001, the Gambia in2016, Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone in 2017, Burma and Laos in2018.
Under Section 243 (d) of the Immigration and NationalityAct, the Secretary of State is required to discontinue granting immigration ornon-immigrant visas to a nation upon receiving notice from the HomelandSecurity Secretary that the country has denied or is unreasonably delayingaccepting a citizen, subject, national or resident of that country.
The State Departmenttried to downplay the impact of the sanctions on Pakistan.
“Consular operations in Pakistan remain unchanged,” a State Department Spokesperson told PTI when asked about the federal register notification.