What good is a dead body
Visa restrictions should be relaxed to allow neighbours to live in peace
By Beena Sarwar
India-Pakistan relations have Nazo Reshi vacillating between hope and despair. Hailing from Srinagar, she is married to a Pakistani and lives in Islamabad. "Every time I apply for a visa for Jammu and Kashmir it is a marathon," she wrote in an email to Aman ki Asha, the peace initiative of the Jang Group of Pakistan where I work and the Times of India Group.
"The intricacies of the visa application keep increasing. Nobody realises the plight of women like me who are divided from their families, often from villages all over India and Pakistan. Many years elapse before they can meet their families. I can go to the Indian High Commission any time as I live in Islamabad. But for those in far off villages, even the cheapest fare is too much. The embassies of both countries try to give visas on humanitarian grounds if a relative dies. But what good is a dead body if we are unable to see the person alive?
"…There are many like I am... hopeless and separated from our loved ones by solid imaginary lines drawn at the cost of our peace of mind."
I called Nazo and we talked. Two days later, she rang to say that her mother was being operated upon for brain haematoma. Srinagar, barely 160 km from Islamabad, might as well be across the world for Nazo.
She has since set up an online petition against visa restrictions. Each point, she says, has a story behind it -- http://bit.ly/afnXBx. She will send the signatures to the Foreign Ministers meeting in Islamabad on July 15.
Despite feeling that the exercise is "futile" she clings to a ray of hope, "this small window of opportunity," as Sankarshan Thakur, Roving Editor, The Telegraph, Calcutta, put it. We talked on the phone while he was in Islamabad for the Saarc Home Ministers' meeting. He couldn't visit Karachi., just like I couldn't visit Allahabad when I came to Delhi for a conference in May. Absurd rules limit Indians and Pakistanis to one or two cities. At least we got visas.
Others are simply refused. India wouldn't give visas to Pakistani schoolchildren who wanted to participate in the Queens Baton Relay ceremony on the Indian side of Wagah border for an hour or so. Surely such a crossing shouldn't even need a visa? Surely it could be managed through some kind of permit?
The rules affect even children born to an Indian mother and a Pakistani father (and vice versa). Indian national Anjum Naqash lives with her Pakistani husband in Doha. Their children, ages nine and six, are Pakistanis (India did not earlier grant children nationality based on the mother's citizenship).
"If I plan to go home I have to leave my kids behind or wait and wait for clearance," she wrote to Aman ki Asha. "My father has to go through all the hassle in New Delhi, go from one office to another to get me a piece of paper. I wonder how that little paper validates that my kids are no threat to India. Their previous visas clearly mention that they are 'accompanied by Indian mother'."
She applied for a visa a month ago for her brother's wedding in July. "I am wondering if my kids will be able to see where I grew up, the people who mean a lot to me." She fears that as they grow up "they will get fed up of this process and never want to go there."
Talawat Bokhari, a former student activist living in Islamabad, now over 80 and suffering from Parkinson's' Disease, was so frustrated by the visa process some years ago that he wrote an appeal to then Prime Minister of India, I.K. Gujral, urging him to relax visa restrictions for senior citizens. A few days later the governments announced visas on arrival for those over 65 years of age.
"We waited, but nothing happened. One can only laugh at these restrictions as they stop only those who desire to visit legally," he commented on my blog. "I have lost all hope now. Though I can visit Cairo with its pyramids, London, Moscow, Mashhad, I cannot visit Amritsar only 30 miles from Lahore." All eyes are now on our politicians and bureaucrats. Will they finally rise above themselves and allow us to live like neighbours in peace?
Sunday, July 04, 2010
By Beena Sarwar
India-Pakistan relations have Nazo Reshi vacillating between hope and despair. Hailing from Srinagar, she is married to a Pakistani and lives in Islamabad. "Every time I apply for a visa for Jammu and Kashmir it is a marathon," she wrote in an email to Aman ki Asha, the peace initiative of the Jang Group of Pakistan where I work and the Times of India Group.
"The intricacies of the visa application keep increasing. Nobody realises the plight of women like me who are divided from their families, often from villages all over India and Pakistan. Many years elapse before they can meet their families. I can go to the Indian High Commission any time as I live in Islamabad. But for those in far off villages, even the cheapest fare is too much. The embassies of both countries try to give visas on humanitarian grounds if a relative dies. But what good is a dead body if we are unable to see the person alive?
"…There are many like I am... hopeless and separated from our loved ones by solid imaginary lines drawn at the cost of our peace of mind."
I called Nazo and we talked. Two days later, she rang to say that her mother was being operated upon for brain haematoma. Srinagar, barely 160 km from Islamabad, might as well be across the world for Nazo.
She has since set up an online petition against visa restrictions. Each point, she says, has a story behind it -- http://bit.ly/afnXBx. She will send the signatures to the Foreign Ministers meeting in Islamabad on July 15.
Despite feeling that the exercise is "futile" she clings to a ray of hope, "this small window of opportunity," as Sankarshan Thakur, Roving Editor, The Telegraph, Calcutta, put it. We talked on the phone while he was in Islamabad for the Saarc Home Ministers' meeting. He couldn't visit Karachi., just like I couldn't visit Allahabad when I came to Delhi for a conference in May. Absurd rules limit Indians and Pakistanis to one or two cities. At least we got visas.
Others are simply refused. India wouldn't give visas to Pakistani schoolchildren who wanted to participate in the Queens Baton Relay ceremony on the Indian side of Wagah border for an hour or so. Surely such a crossing shouldn't even need a visa? Surely it could be managed through some kind of permit?
The rules affect even children born to an Indian mother and a Pakistani father (and vice versa). Indian national Anjum Naqash lives with her Pakistani husband in Doha. Their children, ages nine and six, are Pakistanis (India did not earlier grant children nationality based on the mother's citizenship).
"If I plan to go home I have to leave my kids behind or wait and wait for clearance," she wrote to Aman ki Asha. "My father has to go through all the hassle in New Delhi, go from one office to another to get me a piece of paper. I wonder how that little paper validates that my kids are no threat to India. Their previous visas clearly mention that they are 'accompanied by Indian mother'."
She applied for a visa a month ago for her brother's wedding in July. "I am wondering if my kids will be able to see where I grew up, the people who mean a lot to me." She fears that as they grow up "they will get fed up of this process and never want to go there."
Talawat Bokhari, a former student activist living in Islamabad, now over 80 and suffering from Parkinson's' Disease, was so frustrated by the visa process some years ago that he wrote an appeal to then Prime Minister of India, I.K. Gujral, urging him to relax visa restrictions for senior citizens. A few days later the governments announced visas on arrival for those over 65 years of age.
"We waited, but nothing happened. One can only laugh at these restrictions as they stop only those who desire to visit legally," he commented on my blog. "I have lost all hope now. Though I can visit Cairo with its pyramids, London, Moscow, Mashhad, I cannot visit Amritsar only 30 miles from Lahore." All eyes are now on our politicians and bureaucrats. Will they finally rise above themselves and allow us to live like neighbours in peace?
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Where do we go from here?
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Indian Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and former Consul-General of India, Karachi argues for "uninterrupted and uninterruptible" dialogue<
.....more
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Indian Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and former Consul-General of India, Karachi argues for "uninterrupted and uninterruptible" dialogue<
.....more
Cost of conflict VI: A profitable conflict
Missionaries of death offer poor young men attractive monetary packages to join militant outfits. Motivators, who bring young men into what they tout as 'jihad', are p
.....more
Missionaries of death offer poor young men attractive monetary packages to join militant outfits. Motivators, who bring young men into what they tout as 'jihad', are p
.....more
The desi melting pot
By Zarminae Ansari
In school, we are more open, more vulnerable, more honest: we are not hardened, not bitter, and have fewer preconceived ideas. It is easier a .....more
By Zarminae AnsariIn school, we are more open, more vulnerable, more honest: we are not hardened, not bitter, and have fewer preconceived ideas. It is easier a .....more
Aman ki Asha Bookshelf
A selection of some books that we believe further the cause of peace and understanding between
Pakistan and India
The Coffee House of Lahore:
a Memoir 194 .....more
A selection of some books that we believe further the cause of peace and understanding betweenPakistan and India
The Coffee House of Lahore:
a Memoir 194 .....more
Possibilities in the air
Thank you, Aman ki Asha
IT Committee Pakistan
Dear friends in Pakistan,
Madhuri and I want to thank you for the great warmth with which our group was .....more
Thank you, Aman ki Asha IT Committee Pakistan
Dear friends in Pakistan,
Madhuri and I want to thank you for the great warmth with which our group was .....more
'Bridging' the divide
They have never met, but Amin Ansari and Jawahir Mulraj, who came together
at an online bridge forum four years ago, are 'close friends'
Laleh Habib
.....more
They have never met, but Amin Ansari and Jawahir Mulraj, who came together at an online bridge forum four years ago, are 'close friends'
Laleh Habib
.....more
Page 120 of 175
Special Editions
more editions
The News on Sunday Special Report: India Pakistan prisoners
We probably didn't need to do this Special Report. Newspaper stories don't matter when it comes to Indians in Pakistani jails and vice versa. In fact, 'vice versa' sums it up. We do to them what they do to us.
Except when the two countries decide to begin talking, yet again! This time a little before the foreign secretary level talks, some Pakistani prisoners were released by India (and vice versa must have happened) and some more were release....read more
Blog
more
For the past 2 years the Jang Group and Geo have been working on a project of great national interest; one that we hope will help usher in an era of peace and prosperity in the country and indeed, in the region. And one that hopefully all Pakistanis can be proud of.
The Jang Group has entered into an agreement with the Times of India Group, the largest media group of India, to campaign for peace betw
Global Media
Comments