Plight of the divided
NEWS reports indicate that a ‘liberalised’ visa agreement is due to be signed by the interior\home secretaries of Pakistan and India soon in Islamabad.
The focus will be on easing travel restrictions for the business community, while divided families, senior citizens and those wishing to attend weddings or funerals in the other country will also reportedly get more lenient treatment from the visa-issuing authorities.
For those who belong to divided families and all those who wish for peace to prevail in the subcontinent, this comes as great news, for the current visa regime — especially following the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks — is highly illiberal. However, knowing the hawkish stance of both security establishments as well as the inflexible nature of the subcontinental bureaucracy, one will believe it when one sees it.
While politicians, professional peaceniks and those with the right connections can visit the other country with relative ease, for the common citizen the visa process is nothing short of a nightmare, seemingly designed to discourage people from applying. A quick overview of the requirements of both countries for a visitor’s visa will help put things in perspective.As per Pakistan High Commission’s website in Delhi, Indians wanting to visit Pakistan are required to submit, along with the visa form, supporting documents and Rs15 visa fee, the CNIC copy of the Pakistani sponsor. The requirements for Pakistanis wanting to visit India, however, are a little more complicated.
The website of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad advises Pakistani nationals wanting to visit India to do the following: all previous passports must be attached, unless the current passport is stamped with an Indian visa. If any one of the applicant’s previous passports is not attached, an affidavit and copy of an FIR must be submitted. How easy is this requirement, say, for a well-travelled septuagenarian, one must ask.
A ‘sponsorship certificate’ attested by an authorised Indian official from the sponsor in India “taking responsibility of the bona fide and good conduct of the Pak nationals” must be attached along with an “antecedents/bona fide certificate” issued by the Pakistani police. Anyone who has tried to obtain a “character certificate” from the local police knows that even if one is a model citizen, it’s a difficult exercise unless palms are greased.
The Indian authorities also require a CNIC copy with an English translation. Surely the Indian civil service must have officers conversant with Urdu. Pakistani utility bills must also be submitted, along with a no-objection certificate if you are a government employee, or a letter from your employer stating who you are and what you do if you are in private service. Utility bills from your host in India must also be attached.
While the minimum processing time is 15 days, passports are gone for months on end, with no indication whatsoever about whether the application is being positively considered.
It is as if one was preparing for an audience with God. But while the Almighty is forgiving, bureaucrats are not. The Pakistani requirements, when compared to India, seem almost progressive.
If officials from both sides really want to do something, they should dismantle this draconian regime and simplify the application process. Nearly all those this writer talked to — former diplomats, human rights activists, journalists and ordinary citizens — agreed that the process can be simplified if both establishments desire it. Ordinary people are intimidated by these cumbersome requirements, dictated by the respective security establishments.
Terrorism is a genuine concern. However, undesirable elements can be filtered out without putting all applicants — from infants to senior citizens — through the same rigmarole, while if the authorities feel a certain individual is a security threat, they can be denied entry. Needless to say, terrorists don’t use the front door and security agencies should focus their energies elsewhere.
The generation that witnessed the partition and migrated will soon be gone. Those who want to visit their ancestral areas before meeting their Maker, along with their descendants, are being punished by this tough visa regime. What interest do businessmen have in visiting the other side, other than doing business? The restrictions isolate those who have blood relations across the border. They serve to strengthen hate lobbies in both countries who despise peace and thrive on confrontation. Both governments need to end this apartheid and let people meet.
As a Pakistani whose ancestral town now lies on the ‘wrong’ side of the border I and many others like me who have close blood relations in India, would want to visit the other side without any hassle, without having to fill out lengthy forms or obtain humiliating affidavits. We want to pray at the Sufi shrines our families have been attached to for centuries, visit our ancestral homes and offer fateha at the graves of our ancestors. Surely we are not endangering national security by demanding this.
We want visa-on-arrival or visa-free travel between India and Pakistan, an end to police reporting and limits on the number of cities one can visit, as well as increased road, sea and rail links so that the common man can travel easily and not have to pay exorbitant airfares. I dream of the day I am able to have an early breakfast in Karachi, hop on a bus, traverse the mighty wastes of Thar and be in Ajmer Sharif in time for a late dinner. I don’t know if this will be possible in my lifetime, or ever.
However, one thing I do know is that if the generals, bureaucrats and, to a lesser extent, politicians of India and Pakistan desire, anything is possible.
The writer is a member of staff.
qasim.moini@dawn.com
Your premise – that if Indian and Pakistani desire, they can make things happen – is all wrong. If it were a hope, one would allow you that, of course. But you seem to believe it. I hate to bust your bubble but the truth is that the bureaucrats (as well as the politicians and security people) in both countries are incompetent and disorganized. What is worse, they have no vision and no will. There is an old Indian proverb, "When elephants tussle, it's the grass that suffers. But beware, when elephants make love, it's the grass that suffers". That perhaps is the fate of ordinary people in the foreseeable future.
PS:
@L. Manohar, who says, "Why come to India to worship at sufi shrines? why not at hindu temples? " and other claptrap: What do you smoke, man?
With Pakistan's international reputation as the epicenter of terrorists, isn't it unreasonable for Pakistanis to expect that they will be given visas on demand at time of arrival at the Wagah border ? Especially after what some Pakistanis did in Mumbai in 2008 ?
Why not start with Pakistan granting on-demand visa to Indians even if India does not reciprocate ?
Also it is quite cheeky for Pakistanis to suddenly remember that they have cultural ties with India and they want to have a quick fling in India before they die. Why did they leave India in the first place in 1947 and that too so arrogantly and angrily ?
My Hindu friends are still angry that they had to abandon their homes in Pakistan in 1947. Will Pakistan ever announce that those Hindus and Sikhs who want to return to the land of their ancestors in Pakistan can do so ? Pakistanis migrate to the US and to the Gulf countries with ease. Why does not Pakistan open its borders to Indians who want to migrate to Pakistan ?
Sincerly, Abida (descendant of Muslims who proudly considered themselves Indians in 1947 and did not even think of moving to Karachi or Lahore even though it would have been lucrative)
Naturally india has to be doubly sure of the visitor.Giving visa freely to those above 60 is ok. But others should report to the nearest police stn every week, –alex
The writer, even while asking for easier visa provisions, is referring to India as "wrong country"!! Doesn't that say enough. Remember that the Pak society could not prevent (nor show regret) about the brutal attack on the Srilankan Cricket team. The whole Pakistan society and Govt. has been nurtured on hate (of India specifically) and that is Pakistan's main industry. While India is busy trying to become the 5th largest economy.
Until Pakistan society and Govt. shows proof that it is shunning terrorist methods, the world will continue to treat Pakistan as untrustworthy. Turkey is not treated this way by the rest of the world. Nor Indonesia, the largest Muslim country.
Why come to India to worship at sufi shrines? why not at hindu temples?
Indian restrictions are more since it is Pakistan from where terror mostly originates.
You quislings of arabic-islam imperialism wanted to separate from us – then why look back to us?
Those who are above 60 years of age may get quick visas at the border, provided they give a written admission that the partition of India was a big injustice, insult and injury to the hindus and that this alien arabic ideology called islam has no right to determine politics or culture or identities in the indian subcontinent.
What? Here is somebody wanting to make peace and you go provoking the other person. People like you are the bane of both countries. Being an Indian, I feel extremely provocateur by your writing.
If Pakistanis believe they are Arabs they have no culture of their own.
+
When Pakistani men travel to the Middle East for work they are disrespected and cheated.
Go there and worship in the beautiful mosques of Saudi Arabia. Go on the Haj and go home. They don't want you.
Hi,
We[Indians] also have jokers like this Manohar. Please ignore such comments
-Kiran[India]
You should be ashamed of the tone of your writing….not to speak of your chosen words – quislings! People moved because their leaders made the deal and it is also the common people who suffered the most and for your information, Hindus, Moslems and Sikhs – all suffered.
My parents ancestral land now lie in Bangladesh…which my brother and I were lucky to visit with our father because we carry Western passports but there are millions in India, who would like to go visit Pakistan and vice-versa.
If people choose to leave India and settle elsewhere, they cannot hope to get back to India whenever they wanted at the drop of a hat. There are consequences to ones actions, and such hardship, perhaps unavoidable given the hostility over years and terrorism exploited by pakistan, is the price one pays for leaving one country and going to another. I shed no tears, even if I can sympathize.
see indian movies, you see INDIA, but stay in pakiistan
I would just like to add that what the author has stated about Pakistani requirements being “almost progressive” is not entirely true.
I recently got married in Islamabad and a number of my friends from university era wanted to attend the wedding. They followed the procedures and prepared documents as listed on the website of the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi.
When they flew into New Delhi from Bombay, Pune, Bangalore etc. they were informed that aside from the general documents, they also needed to submit a letter of invitation from the Pakistani Ministry of Interior.
Upon being informed of this “rule”, I immediately contacted the Ministry of Interior in Islamabad who directed me to the “Indian Section Desk” where after speaking with a gentleman, I came to know that I must submit the passport copies and address details of the persons I would be inviting to the Ministry who would then launch an investigation and contact their counterparts at the Indian Embassy and the Ministry of Interior for verification of the submitted details. I was also informed that I had to submit my own identification documents, bank statements, and contact details of family members in Pakistan and abroad. After receiving these details and verification from the Indian Ministry they would issue a letter to the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi that the following persons are invited to visit Pakistan and it is encouraged that they be issued a visa.
All in all, I was told this process would take at least 3 months and possibly more.
The gentleman further proceeded to inform/advise me to avoid doing any such thing for the moment as any such request would alert certain higher authorities who could make life very complicated and difficult for moi.
The bottom line is neither country is correct or perfect. Both have serious issues and both need to sort them out logically and stop behaving like silly little school boys.
yes janabMoini as an indian i have lots of sympathy for your keen desire to see your indain relatives and go for Ziyarat at at moinuddin Chishti 's Shrine inajmer.
So long we do notstart seeingcitizens of either of the divided subcontinent ascompulsive saboteurs we shouldincreasingly make ourcivilians meet each other. In fact there should be revival of indoPakistani Dosti Meets in eithercountry to lessen mutual suspiscions , of a people who for what ever thepolitical and military Ruling class lived as common Stock sharing joys and sorrows to ether in thousands of small hamlets across Sindh _Ganga Basin over aseveral hundred yrs.D. Goel
true..Indian laws more strict.I want to invite my relatives and I have to pay big money to a group 'A "govt official to attest my sponsorship certificate.What a rubbish
Anything which is not in the interest of elite class of the two countries can not be done. Creating artificial enemity between the people of the two countries is in the interest of the elite class, so why should they allow the common person meet each other , know each other and thus help reducing this artificial enemity. Just forget about the ease in visa restrictions. New generation of Pakistan and India are least interested in going to enemy country. Old generation will fade in few years time and thus the problem of getting visa will automatically finish.
A never achievable dream……..
We must also take legitimate security concerns into account. Just today there is news that a Pakistani pilgrim on a train to Ajmer disappeared along the way. Earlier many people who received visas to watch sports games in India have similarly not returned. A right balance must be struck. It is easy to blame the bureaucrats but they are ones who also get blamed when incidents of terror occur.
I can understand the annoyance of businessmen for the strict visa norms but would why would a common man who chose to migrate to Pakistan want to travel to India- a country whom he/she despised for being Hindu majority?? If their love for ancestral areas was/is strong what were the partition and 'Direct Action Day' all about? You wanted a Islamic country, you have one. Be proud of it and enjoy your freedom. If your love for your divided family is so strong ask them to migrate to Pakistan. They being muslim, Islamic Pakistan would resonate more with their conscience than Hindu-majority India.
My relatives were forced to migrate from Pakistani part of Punjab; they left their land, home and everything in Pakistan. They are dead now but when alive they had nothing but resentment towards everything that Pakistan stands for. I never saw them cringing for their ancestral land.
Dear Qasim
You have highlighted very important points for the establishments of the two countries… If European can open the boundaries for their citizen after fighting for centuries with each other then why Pakistan and India cannot do this… The thing we need is to transform our perspectives about each other…Hope one day your wish will come true…
But Europeans buried the hatchet. "Pakistan ideology" according to its ideologues is founded on eternal enmity towards India.
europe opened it's boundaries when all the extremist hawks were either dead, or rendered ineffective. can you say the same about indians and pakistani extremists that all are dead.
opening up like europe, would mean opening up the route to all suicide bombings to india. and regarding being relatives in respective countries, i just want to enquire, atleast three generations have passed, and as such all those had relations are mostly dead, so there is no point in keeping up a relation beyond the enemy's line.
Men and women above the age of sixty are hardly going to be terrorists or trouble creators.These people should be given visas on arrival.These are generally people coming for one last look to meet family members or pray at shrines.Or to see the country their family left when settling in Pakistan.
A majority of indians dont want to do anything with pakistanis. Why visa relaxations?
after knowing all those formalities for appying Indian visa, do you feel even a bit of interest on Indias part to have anyone from Pakistan for a visit. As far as i am concerned they are still less, considering the Paks attitude towards India since its inception. Dont worry, make it simple just dont come to India and u dont need to bribe anyone for that, please leave us for ourselves.