Two Indian journalists asked to leave: report

NEW YORK: Pakistan has declined to renew the visas of the two Indian journalists based in Islamabad and has asked them to leave the country, Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing a Pakistani government official. The two have been told they must leave the country within a week, the newspaper said. Meena Menon of the Hindu newspaper and Snehesh Philip of Press Trust of India were informed on Thursday by the director of the External Publicity Wing, a department within the Ministry of Information that deals with foreign journalists, that their visas wouldn’t be renewed, the report said. The WSJ report said that another official of the External Publicity wing, Altaf Hussain, would only say that a statement about the visas of the two Indian journalists would be forthcoming later from the Ministry of Interior. The Ministry of Interior couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. M.K. Razdan, editor in chief of Press Trust of India, when asked to comment by WSJ said: “We have no confirmation” as of Friday afternoon of the expulsion of the PTI reporter. A senior official at the Hindu wasn’t available for comment. A representative of India’s Ministry of External Affairs also said he had no immediate comment, the paper said. The two Indian journalists arrived in Pakistan in August 2013. Their visas were valid until March 9, 2014 and both had submitted applications to renew their visas before the expiration date, according to people familiar with the matter. After their original visas expired, they were issued letters stating that their visa renewals were being processed, as is standard practice for foreign journalists in Pakistan. Ms Menon and Mr Philip were summoned to the External Publicity Wing on Thursday and told to start making preparations to leave within a week. Meanwhile, The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed its deep concern that Pakistani authorities might decline to renew visas for the only two Indian journalists working in the country. It called upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to honour pledges he had made to CPJ earlier this year to ease visa restrictions for foreign journalists.