“Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is set to formally inaugurate the new relaxed visa regime on Thursday,” said Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Pakistan’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting.

Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that P.M Imran Khan would initially roll out a project of visa free policy for five preferred countries including United Arab Emirates, Turkey, China, Malaysia, the United Kingdom. It means that the citizens of the UAE and other four countries Turkey, China, Malaysia, The United Kingdom will be granted visa on arrival at Pakistani airports including, Lahore Airport Ilama iqbal international airport, Karachi Jinnah International Airport

 Islamabad International airport. and other airports of pakistan.

In the phase 2, names of the 45 more countries will be announced in the visa-on arrival category, Fawad Hussain said. All other member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will also be given on-arrival visa for 30 days once the policy is further expanded in future.

“The basic aim is that we should not see Pakistan in the perspective of a security state and open the country for the world,” Fawad Hussain added.

In January, 2019, the governemnt had announced that it was making easing on visa policy for travel restrictions in the hope of reviving tourism by offering visas on arrival to visitors from 50 countries and electronic visas to 175 nationalities.

“By introducing a new relaxed visa policy, we want to open up our country to tourists from around the world as Pakistan has been a ‘closed’ country for the last 70 years,” said fawad Hussain.

Now, he said, there would be no restrictions on visas for journalists and also there will be no restricted areas for visitors. “Tourists can now go anywhere in Pakistan, they don’t need no-objection certificates (NOCs) anymore,” he said.

He said 175 countries will get the e-visa facility while 96 countries are included in the business visa category and some 50 countries will get visas on arrival.