Indo-Pak visa blues

This is how Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh responded to his new Pakistan counterpart Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani soon after Gilani was sworn in as Pakistan's prime minister: Excellency, Please accept my warm felicitations on your assumption of office as the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
On this occasion, I re-affirm the Government of India's commitment to strengthening friendship and cooperation with Pakistan. We see a stable, prosperous and democratic Pakistan as being in the interest of India and the region.
There is a strong public sentiment in both our countries in favour of accelerating the peace process and establishing a co-operative framework for our bilateral relations. There is a common desire to establish a neighbourhood of peace and progress based on greater linkages between our two people, trust and mutual understanding.
Leading personalities of the coalition that will form your government have been strong advocates of friendly ties between our two countries and have made important contributions to the peace process. I hope very much that we can build upon the progress already achieved and work expeditiously, through the dialogue process, towards agreed solutions of pending issues.
We have an opportunity to transform our relationship into the close, co-operative and mutually beneficial partnership that should be normal between neighbours like India and Pakistan. I look forward to working closely with you towards an objective that I am confident you share.
"Please accept the assurances of my highest consideration." Did Dr Manmohan Singh really meant what he wrote? Ground realities are far different. Let us analyse how far the term "people-to-people" contact has been successful in normalising relations between the two arch rivals.
Every year, about ten thousand people belonging to Sikh community cross border and enter Pakistan to attend the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak at Nankana Sahib in Pakistani side of Punjab. Pakistan's print and electronic media gives considerable coverage to this annual event.
One gets to see on television screens, people of Sikh community speaking to different independent local and international news channels appreciating the co-operation of Pakistan High Commission in Delhi for issuing them Pakistani visas in such large numbers and the hospitality extended to them by the people of Pakistan. They also express their satisfaction on the way their holy places are being taken care of by the Pakistani government.
Just as Sikh community visits Pakistan every year, many Muslims visit India to attend the Urs (annual religious event) of different Muslim saints whose shrines are scattered in different states of India. But, does the Pakistani Muslims gets the same kind of treatment from Indian High Commission in Islamabad when they apply for Indian visa? The answer is big 'NO'.
I know a man who had planned to visit India last year to attend the Urs of Khawaja Gharib Nawaz in Ajmer. He submitted his visa application with Indian High Commission in Islamabad through a courier service.
After a lapse of about two and a half month, his visa application was trued down by Indian High Commission on the pretext that since he had not been to India even once in the past, he cannot be granted visa. The man was deeply hurt by this attitude of the Indian High Commission as he is a staunch follower of Khawaja Gharib Nawaz.
Next time an agent, who arranges Indian Visa. The agent demanded sixteen thousand rupees for providing one single entry visa. The man initially told the agent how and on what ground his visa application was rejected last time. The agent assured him of getting Indian visa for him provided he agreed to pay sixteen thousand rupees, while the visa fee for a single entry Indian visa is fifteen rupees only.
The agent promised to arrange visa in seven days. The Indian High Commission in Islamabad takes two to three month's time to issue one single entry visit visa. After two days from date of submitting his passport, the man received a phone call from the agent who told him that if he agrees to pay additional two thousand rupees, he can get a visa with "police reporting exemption".
People from India and Pakistan visiting each other's countries have to report to the police head office about their arrival and departure. The man agreed to pay two thousand rupees extra and the agent managed to get a visa for this devotee of Khawaja Gharib Nawaz in a week's time.
A week after this man narrated the whole incident to me about the corrupt practices of Indian High Commission Islamabad, I met a young man who was in his twenties. I learnt that he belonged to Bombay (now Mumbai) and had come to Karachi to attend the wedding of his cousin. I asked this youth how he managed to get visa for Pakistan?
He had a similar story to tell. He said that since the Pakistan Embassy is situated in New Delhi and he had no time to go to Delhi so he got in touch with an agent in Mumbai, who is famous for acquiring Pakistani visas.
The deal was struck for ten thousand Indian rupees but the youth wanted to submit his passport for visa of some other European country and was not in a position to get his passport stranded for long time in Pakistan's Embassy in New Delhi. The Mumbai agent assured him of providing Pakistani visa within twenty four hours.
The agent flew to New Delhi on Sunday evening and on Monday evening, the youth got a phone call from the agent who gave him the good news that he has succeeded in acquiring Pakistan's visa for him. The agent said he was returning to Mumbai the same night with his passport. This Indian youth told me that when the visa officers of both countries are minting millions of rupees every month, they are not fools to recommend the government's of their respective countries to open visa offices in Karachi and Mumbai.
In the last eight years of his rule, President General Pervez Musharraf (Retd) visited India twice to normalise relations between the two countries. The people of both the countries were told that the top most agenda of governments of both the countries were "CBM" (Confidence Building Measures) and "People-to-People" contact.
But the ground realities are far more different than what is preached by both the governments in the media. Some two to three years back, the Indian government had announced that people above sixty years of age, whether male or female, will be granted visa on border and on arrival at the airport but this promise still remains to be fulfilled by the Indian government.
One of my friend's mother who is sixty five years old and wanted to visit Kutch , an Indian city in the state of Gujrat to see her ailing brother who is on death bed. She applied for Indian visa with Indian High Commission in Islamabad through courier three times in five months. Every time her visa application was rejected and she was told that her application has been sent to the Kutch police for verification, which will take at least three months.
If the government of India thinks that a Pakistani woman as old as sixty five years will indulge in any kind of terrorist activity in their country, then what is the use of making tall claims of CBMs by both the governments. If the corrupt practice of issuing visa against hefty amount continues on both sides of the border, a time will come when only rich people will have access to visit India to meet their loved ones.
Poor and middle class of Pakistan and India will never be able to step on each other's soil. It is high time that the newly formed government in Pakistan and the government of Dr Manmohan Singh review its visa policy for the citizens of each other's countries.