ISLAMABAD, 23 March 2005 — The government of Pakistan has restored the column of religion in passport, said Federal Minister of Defense Rao Sikanader Iqbal here yesterday.
The column identifying the bearer’s religious affiliation will be restored to the Pakistani passport, in a bid to avoid a clash with Islamic parties threatening a countrywide strike over the issue.
Iqbal told a news conference here the recommendation to restore the religion column had been made by a special Cabinet committee headed by him after discussing the issue at length.
“The committee has unanimously recommended that the religion of the passport holder may be stamped at a suitable place on the new passport,” Iqbal said.
He said a Cabinet meeting tomorrow would approve the recommendation.
The move came ahead of a strike called by six-party Islamic alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal to protest the government’s policies including the deletion of religion column from the machine readable passports, which were launched late last year.
The Islamists have said the deletion of the column was a deliberate attempt by President Pervez Musharraf to damage the Islamic identity of the 150-million strong overwhelmingly Muslim nation.
Musharraf is a key ally of the US-led war on terror and has cracked down on Islamic militancy in Pakistan since he allied himself with Washington following the September 11 attacks in the US.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told the briefing the decision to revive the column was not done under the pressure from the Islamists, but did not say what prompted the government to reverse its earlier decision.
Pakistan, Afghanistan to Boost Ties
In an unrelated development, Pakistan and Afghanistan yesterday agreed to boost cooperation in the economic and trade fields, and forge close coordination in the war against terror, official sources said.
The agreement came as the Afghan President Hamid Karzai held talks with his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf here yesterday, a source said.
Karzai arrived yesterday afternoon on a two-day official visit. He last visited Pakistan last August.
Pakistani security forces routinely carry out military operations to track down suspect foreign militants belonging to Al-Qaeda and Taleban in the country’s tribal rim bordering Afghanistan, where Afghan Army and US troops operate jointly.
“The talks also focused on ways to further enhance economic, political, commercial and trade ties,” said the source.
The volume of Pak-Afghan annual trade is approximately $1 billion with the balance of trade tilting in Pakistan’s favor.
The two countries will sign five agreements today aimed at bolstering bilateral relationship between them
The accords include a protocol on political consultations between foreign ministries of the two countries and agreements on cooperation in tourism, culture, media and on starting a bus service,” Foreign Office Spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said.
The proposed bus service will link Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Quetta with Jalalabad and Kandahar in Afghanistan respectively.
Pakistan will also provide 100 buses to Afghanistan shortly, in addition to 200 buses it donated last year as part of reconstruction efforts in the war-torn country.
