India and Pakistan, on Tuesday, established a Joint Working Group to discuss lifting of ban on Indian television channels in Pakistan and to liberalise visa procedures and travel restrictions faced by journalists from both the countries.
During the Joint Commission meeting held in Islamabad, India proposed lifting the ban on Indian television channels in Pakistan, as relations between both countries have improved in the wake of the peace process, official sources said.
The meeting of the Joint Commission, revived after a gap of 16 years, was attended by External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid M Kasuri.
The JWG would be headed by Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Information, P K Tripathi and Director General of Pakistan's External Publicity Wing, A S Abbasy, the sources said.
The two sides also discussed the problems faced by media personnel from both the countries for acquiring visas as well as discharging their professional duties on assignments to each others' countries, they said.
After reviewing the stands of both the countries on this issue, the meeting then decided to form a JWG, which would finalise recommendations to promote understanding between the two countries on issues relating to media, the sources said.
Pakistan says it has imposed the ban on Indian channels after India banned PTV programmes during the height of tensions that followed the attack on Indian Parliament in December 2001. While India lifted the ban later, Pakistan continued it, they said.
