LETTER
Dear Aman ki Asha...
Asalam-o-Alaikum
I had a chance to browse through your website www.amankiasha.com a few days back. I felt great to know that you are trying to bring together the people of Pakistan and India so that love and friendship can develop between the people of both countries and they can live happily in a peaceful environment, allowing our region of South Asia to progress.
We appreciate your struggles and pray that you may succeed in your efforts. We are all with you.
The divided families of India and Pakistan are facing a lot of difficulties in obtaining visas. Most of the people are unable to get visas as the procedure is very complicated. Besides that time and money is also wasted.
A relative of ours lives in Ajmer Sharif and is very sick. We planned to visit him during his lifetime as there's no guarantee of life. We started inquiring about the visa process and realised how very complicated it is. It requires an affidavit, bills of electricity and gas from India along with election card and ration card. We obtained originals of all these documents from India, filled the forms, and travelled to Islamabad to submit them.
After being in line for a long time, when our turn came, the officer objected that the affidavit was not attested and there are no attested signatures, and that the other documents - electricity and gas bills - were also not attested. We had the original bills with us. The website of India's embassy does not state that original documents should also be attested.
In the same way, the officers rejected the forms of other people on minor issues and we saw them also turning back hopelessly. Most of them had come from Karachi and Hyderabad.
We request you to write to the ambassador of India to adopt an easy process in place of the difficult one, and not to reject forms on the basis of simple mistakes. Furthermore, notifications or procedures should be written in Urdu so that people who understand only Urdu can get benefit from it, as lot money and time is wasted because of small mistakes. Plus such information should also be provided on Aman ki Asha and a filled form should be uploaded on the website as a sample so that people can fill their form by looking at it.
Along with that, it would be useful if you obtained information about the mistakes that people commonly make and the objections that are raised on incorrect forms and add this information to the website.
We pray that you succeed in your efforts.
Irshad Ali, North Karachi
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Asalam-o-Alaikum
I had a chance to browse through your website www.amankiasha.com a few days back. I felt great to know that you are trying to bring together the people of Pakistan and India so that love and friendship can develop between the people of both countries and they can live happily in a peaceful environment, allowing our region of South Asia to progress.
We appreciate your struggles and pray that you may succeed in your efforts. We are all with you.
The divided families of India and Pakistan are facing a lot of difficulties in obtaining visas. Most of the people are unable to get visas as the procedure is very complicated. Besides that time and money is also wasted.
A relative of ours lives in Ajmer Sharif and is very sick. We planned to visit him during his lifetime as there's no guarantee of life. We started inquiring about the visa process and realised how very complicated it is. It requires an affidavit, bills of electricity and gas from India along with election card and ration card. We obtained originals of all these documents from India, filled the forms, and travelled to Islamabad to submit them.
After being in line for a long time, when our turn came, the officer objected that the affidavit was not attested and there are no attested signatures, and that the other documents - electricity and gas bills - were also not attested. We had the original bills with us. The website of India's embassy does not state that original documents should also be attested.
In the same way, the officers rejected the forms of other people on minor issues and we saw them also turning back hopelessly. Most of them had come from Karachi and Hyderabad.
We request you to write to the ambassador of India to adopt an easy process in place of the difficult one, and not to reject forms on the basis of simple mistakes. Furthermore, notifications or procedures should be written in Urdu so that people who understand only Urdu can get benefit from it, as lot money and time is wasted because of small mistakes. Plus such information should also be provided on Aman ki Asha and a filled form should be uploaded on the website as a sample so that people can fill their form by looking at it.
Along with that, it would be useful if you obtained information about the mistakes that people commonly make and the objections that are raised on incorrect forms and add this information to the website.
We pray that you succeed in your efforts.
Irshad Ali, North Karachi
Thursday, July 22, 2010
An old man's plea:Let us meet
An online video about Sikhs looking after a mosque built by his ancestors inspires
An online video about Sikhs looking after a mosque built by his ancestors inspires
the writer to re-connect with his past across the border
By Syed Saadat Hu
.....more
My meeting with Nawaz Sharif
Adi Godrej
I had the opportunity to lead an 80-member high-level business delegation of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to Pakistan in May 2012 f .....more
Adi GodrejI had the opportunity to lead an 80-member high-level business delegation of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to Pakistan in May 2012 f .....more
BriefS
RIP Asghar Ali Engineer
Asoft spoken, gentle and unassuming person, always clad in a .....more
RIP Asghar Ali Engineer
A legacy of peace, rational thinking,
communal harmony
Asoft spoken, gentle and unassuming person, always clad in a .....more
Testimonials
"Pakistan-India relations have been strained for decades due to a number of well known issues - Kashmir, water, sporadic skirmis .....more
Time to douse the fire
"Pakistan-India relations have been strained for decades due to a number of well known issues - Kashmir, water, sporadic skirmis .....more
Quenching the thirst for peace
"It saddens me that we have neighbours that we can't even go visit." "The .....more
An innovative idea connects Indians and Pakistanis with 'the other side'
"It saddens me that we have neighbours that we can't even go visit." "The .....more
Aman ki Asha: Profit of peace
Congratulating Nawaz Sharif on the electoral win of his political party, Aman ki Asha's plea to both governments continues to be: "Stay the course". Let the people re .....more
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Special Editions
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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
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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
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