In a big change, the Indian embassy has finally started giving visas to Pakistani media who want to go to the neighbouring country to cover the Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 being held by the International Cricket Council (ICC). On Tuesday, the embassy started calling reporters who wanted to cover the big event going on in India and telling them they needed to turn in their papers as soon as possible.
Indian embassy processes Pakistani journalist visas for World Cup
The much-anticipated news came a day after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) once again voiced its disappointment at the prolonged wait for Indian visas for Pakistani fans and media, even though the World Cup 2023 had been going on for almost a week. Although the World Cup started on October 5, Indian officials have not yet given Pakistanis visas to enter the country, keeping them in the dark.
The board said in a statement that Zaka Ashraf, Chairman of the PCB Management Committee, had called Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Syrus Sajjad Qazi to warn him about the delay in getting visas for fans and reporters to cover the World Cup in India. The PCB said that Ashraf also asked the foreign secretary to talk to India’s Home Ministry about the problem through the Pakistan High Commision Office in New Delhi.
ICC law says that the host country has to give fans and reporters passes so they can cover the events. However, India has not responded to Pakistan’s complaints. The statement said that the board was very upset to see that Pakistani media and fans are still not sure how to get an Indian visa to cover Pakistan’s games in the ICC World Cup 2023. In the meantime, the PCB informed both the ICC and the BCCI of their duties and the terms and conditions set out in the Host agreement to make sure that fans and reporters of teams that are competing could get visas.
