Strengthening people-to-people ties between Iran and Pakistan; Islamabad is in pursuit of a new policy.
In 2019, the Pakistani government first proposed a new policy focusing on organizing pilgrimage trips for its citizens to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In addition, the development of a new strategy to facilitate pilgrimage trips from Iran to Iraq and Syria was also on the agenda of the then government of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Although Iran and Pakistan signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding in the summer of 2022, including tourism development, the country’s Minister of Religious Affairs is now calling for a new memorandum of understanding between the two countries.
Along with this domestic Pakistani initiative, there was also the long-standing discussion of launching a shipping line from the country’s ports to Iran and even Iraq. Pakistan had been raising the idea of launching a shipping line with Iran for more than a decade.
Finally, after several years, in mid-August this year, Pakistan granted the first license to launch a shipping line to the Islamic Republic of Iran to an international shipping company; a move that Islamabad has described as a historic step for the development of tourism, especially people-to-people communication via sea.
After the Pakistani Interior Minister’s visit to Tehran in mid-July this year and the holding of a trilateral meeting with his Iranian and Iraqi counterparts centered on Arbaeen pilgrimages, the Islamabad government once again raised the issue of finalizing a new policy for pilgrimages from Pakistan to Iran and Iraq.
Last Friday, during a meeting with the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Islamabad, the Pakistani Minister of Religious Affairs announced that the new policy of the Pakistani government was nearing its final stage and that this memorandum of understanding would be signed with the Iranian side soon.
However, before that and during the Arbaeen period, the Pakistani government decided to ban Pakistani pilgrims from traveling by land to Iran and Iraq and announced that this year all such trips would have to be made by air. Although this decision by Pakistani officials was met with strong reactions from Shiite parties and groups, the Islamabad government assured that with the implementation of the new pilgrimage policy, there would be no obstacles in the way of pilgrimages to Iran and Iraq, especially by land.
At the same time, the Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes all initiatives of its eastern neighbor in support of the development of tourism cooperation, people-to-people contacts, especially facilitating pilgrimage trips for Pakistani nationals, and in this regard, last week the first direct flight between Tehran and Islamabad was established to open a new window in the brotherly relations of the two countries to support the increase in people-to-people relations, the development of tourism, especially the smoothing of beneficial trade activities.
In this regard, Reza Amiri Moghadam, the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Islamabad, said today (Sunday) in an interview with IRNA that we have always announced our country’s readiness for close interaction with Pakistani friends to support the development of tourism between the two countries, especially facilitating pilgrimage trips.