Islamabad: US Embassy suspends consular services

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD (October 27 2009): The US Embassy in Islamabad has temporarily suspended the routine consular services from October 26 to 30, keeping in view the tight security around the Red Zone area of the capital. According to a notice put on the website of the US Embassy, the American citizens have been informed that routine consular services would be temporarily suspended from Monday, October 26 to Friday, October 30.

However, the Embassy will continue to provide emergency services to Americans requiring such assistance, it said. In this regard, the ACS Unit may be contacted in an emergency by calling the Embassy switchboard at (92-51) 208-0000 (92-51) 208-0000 . All the immigrant visa interviews will be rescheduled and the Embassy will contact immigrant visa applicants to advise them of their new appointment dates, it said. Besides, all non-immigrant visa interviews will be rescheduled and the applicants for non-immigrant visas were asked to contact their local American Express or Speedex office.

Richard W Snelsire, Press Attaché of the US Embassy told Business Recorder that the decision was taken keeping in view the tight security in the Red Zone to avoid any inconvenience to the applicants. He added that that sealing of the entire Red Zone has disturbed the routine schedule of the visa section and the administration decided to close it till October 30 and all the appointments would be rescheduled.

The ICT administration has beefed up the security of the Red Zone prior to the address of Turkish Prime Minister to the joint-sitting of the Parliament on Monday. When asked about the latest updates about the incident of the collision of a vehicle of an official of the US Embassy and CDA fire brigade, Richard said the Embassy was engaged with the CDA and other concerned officials of the government to find a solution.

But he was avoided to the question when asked whether the Embassy would compensate the damage to the CDA vehicle due to the reckless driving of the Embassy official, saying that "We do not know exactly what has happened and we are engaged in finding a solution".

http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=97...=&supDate=