"We have written to the Pakistan Foreign Office seeking permission to conduct a visa camp for the passengers of Thar Express and are awaiting a reply,"Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Shivshankar Menon, who is currently touring Karachi, told PTI over phone. The reopening of the consulates of India and Pakistan in Karachi and Mumbai respectively has been delayed indefinitely because Pakistan is having difficulties in finding a suitable accomodation for its mission.
As per the earlier plan, both the consulates and the train service were expected to start functioning around the same time to meet the visa rush from Karachi. Pakistani Railway authorities, however, opened a counter Thursday to formally sell the tickets for Thar Express.
The enthusiasm over the commencement of the train service was such that Governor of Sindh, Isratul Ibad, was the first to buy the Rs 195 ticket followed by a number of activists from his party Muttahida Quami Movement.
A large number of Sindh-based politicians along with local journalists are expected to travel by the first train to Munabao. However, it would be the second train service between the two countries after the Lahore-Delhi Samjhota Express.
The demand for opening of Indian visa camps in Karachi was also raised by former External Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh during his meeting with MQM leaders in Karachi Thursday. Singh is currently on a nine-day tour of Sindh province.
The enthusiasm generated by the train service in Sindh - from where over 65 per cent of the 12,000 visa seekers from Pakistan apply for visas every month - may prompt Pakistan to permit India to open a visa camp in Karachi though such a request was not granted in 2003.