Let the People Meet

During 2004, Pakistan surpassed India in CBMs and practical measures to increase ``people-to-people`` contact (as opposed to just talking about it).

Pakistan has issued 19 visas for every 10 issued by India: PTI

ISLAMABAD, April 27 (Online): This year`s Pak-India peace process may have broken many myths and records but the thaw ended up setting off a silent race between the two countries on the ``visa track`` in which Pakistan has claimed ``victory`` in the first quarter. The restoration of transport links, the ice-melting Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting at the SAARC summit in January followed by the cricket bonhomie forced open the flood gates on the visa front with two countries together issuing an unprecedented 30,000 visas in first three months of the year .

As the people-to-people contact became the byword in the otherwise tense bilateral relations, Pakistan officials claimed ``victory`` on the visa front by saying that Pakistan has issued 19 visas for every 10 issued by India, reports PTI .

The total number of visas issued during this period by India and Pakistan stood at around 10,000 and 19,000 respectively, Pakistan foreign officials said .

The number of visas issued by both sides in the first quarter of 2004 was 10 times higher than the visas issued in the first quarter of 2003 .

Nevertheless this was the highest number of visas the two countries issued to each other`s people in a quarter since the Kargil conflict in 1999 and it reflects the tremendous goodwill generated by the recent peace initiatives taken by the two neighbours to improve relations, they added.

Thanks for a timely article!! It is really important for the two countries to increase the people to people contact, so that they can view each other as human beings. Just check out the other board of Yasser Hamdani, where so called ``educated`` people from both sides are saying some of the most outrageous and ignorant things to each other. I hope the Indian government unilaterally opens up the visa regimen for Pakistan by allowing 10 year multiple entry visas, substantially increasing the number of visas to satisfy the demand and cutting down the cycle time for visa applications to less than a day.

``My secretary had to sit in Delhi for four days,” says noted Bombay-based actor Om Puri, in Karachi for the Kara Fest.``

Pakistan should open up visas for Indians completely. In the long run, this will serve Pakistanis. Pakistanis tend to assume that Indians have the same knowledge about Pakistan, as vice-versa. This is definitely not the case. I am basing this on over ten years experience of meeting with Indians on a daily basis. The standard picture of the typical, ``Pakistani`` in India is quite different from reality.

Interestingly, I read an article in Daily Times that Om Puri remarked that when he was coming to Pakistan, he packed only shalwar kameezes. He did not know whether he would be able to wear pants in Pakistan!! Om Puri must be one of the more, or most, well-travelled Indians in India.

Indians should also open up visas to Pakistanis. The affect of that will not be as dramatic as the opening up of visas to Indians by Pakistanis. But it wouldn`t hurt..........

Alongwith this, and equally importantly, both countries should open up their countries to each others` press and to human rights organizations..........

From one that was finally able to make it to ``the other side``

this people to people contact has to continue.

Pakistanis and Indians have to know each other better

and let us not forget about split families which bear

the brunt of this visa problem.

And Pakistani-Americans should at least be issued visas

to visit India as fast as other Americans.

Ras

hi beena:

….hope you’re keeping fine…just an aside on chowk…

…indians and pakistanis have been meeting on chowk without visas since 1998…if you have some time to spare visit veeresh’s board below this one...what good has it done?...(read my ilog)…most of them travel with full blinkers on…bloated egos and all;)…does not matter what the subject matter…the interactors with bloated and blind-sided egos talk about their organs…

…meanwhile…to travel the equivalent distance from your ( and my) city to mumbai as the crow flies…from TO to DC… all i need to do is fill up the old wagon and take the QEW to 90W and 79/80S to 70S and am there in 9 hours…

…some day, kiddo!

lve

t

Years ago, I once applied for a visa to visit India. I was lucky to be allowed to go inside the High Commission through a lottery draw after a long wait in the que. I went in and was made to stand before a window almost closed with a coloured glass, if I correctly remember. The clerk at the window asked me,``Have you ever visited India previously``? I said,``No, I was born in that part of India which later came to be called `Pakistan```. He gave a curt reply,``No, we don`t issue fresh visas``. I tried to argue with him but he behaved very rudely and called up the guard to shove me out. ``O`My grand-mother land` Bahout be aabroo ho kar tere kooche se ham nikle`` I said to myself and went out. I was so frustrated that I went straight to the office of Lashkare Tayyaba which was situated next door to my home and asked them if they could send me to India. They said,``No problem``. But my age and proclivities, coupled with the risks involved did not allow me to avail that opportunity.

So every body knows that these visa restrictions do not apply to those who are adventurous enough to take the risks involved, especially in crossing the so called porous borders like the India-Pak one. I learn that India has recently allowed citizens of Pakistan above 65 to visit India without a visa. It seems to be too good a news to be believed. Will somebody who availed of this opportunity kindly brief me about it?

`` He did not know whether he would be able to wear pants in Pakistan!! Om Puri must be one of the more, or most, well-travelled Indians in India.
``

Well, I am planning to do the same thing during my trip next month. I assumed it is safer not to stand out as an Indian. What is wrong with that?

The fact that Indians know little about PAki elites is a reminder of which culture looks up to the other as a reference culture.....................

HisExcellency #2

`` During 2004, Pakistan surpassed India in CBMs and practical measures to increase ``people-to-people`` contact (as opposed to just talking about it). ``

What is the point of getting visas if some nutcase is going to kill you. What is the odds of an Indian journalist travelling freely in Baluchistan or NWFP ?

Stuka/07, I guess I am going to be called anti-Pakistan for this also, but to my experience, the commerce on readymade goods (clothing) of the western variety (jeans, branded trousers/shirts) is hot trade on the railway route from India to Pakistan. So my suggestion would be to carry trousers and shirts and buy the shalwars/kameezs there.

(In Pakistan, the demand for Indian visas is as much as 1500 – per day - from around the country, according to Kamal Parvez, Press Attache at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.)

-Amazed to read this statistics...


Indian`s practised a very ruthless attitude to Pakistani visiting India not less than a decade ago. And people very silently and patiently absorbed the uncultured behavior in their own country. It was like going to Israel (Khuda na Khwasta). And I feel Pakistan goverment is also responsible for this alongwith. The diplomatic news were always tense then. And we often used to read that the current High Commissioner of India/Pakistan has been expelled from the respective country because of found in illegal activities against the country. And this used to create series of retaliations from both sides. And nobody never cared for negotiations.

Now We can hope for better...

But one thing will always remain in back of mind is that the people who were directly connected with that part of land had suffered in the previous years since partition of this stiff/cruel behavior both sides.

#9

`What is the point of getting visas if some nutcase is going to kill you. What is the odds of an Indian journalist travelling freely in Baluchistan or NWFP ? `

What are the odds of a Pakistani journalist travelling freely in B`stan or NWFP??? Or for that matter anyone else???

More than likely the Indian would get better treatment than us Pakistanis!!!!

---

Regarding Indian High Commission in London, I am sorry to say they are a bunch of pr**ks. One of them told me that to be a Pakistani is no `crime`. Another told me that they would process a visa for me on my British Passport, but it will take considerably longer than usual. I felt like saying F.U. and shove it up your back sides sideways.

My poor friend who is now in India, had to travel there on her Pak Passport instead of British, and to get the visa she had to go the Indian HC EVERYDAY, yes EVERYDAY for a WHOLE WEEK, and wait for hours, her shortest wait being 4 hours!!!! When she finally got it, they didn`t give her a visa for Kerala, or any southern city where she really wanted to go.

In a city like London where distances are big, and time short, this is how the Indian HC treats people, even becharey Indians sitting there waiting for hours.

What a far cry from 2 years ago when my friend who has a Pak Heritage 5 year visa on his British Passport got a 6 month multiple entry visa for India in one day, saying that was one of his best experiences in ever trying to get a visa for a country, with such helpful and friendly staff!

My friend who is now in India had to change her flight plans and cancel tickets and buy new ones, the stress of not being able to plan, and tell her employer (The BBC), that she wasn`t sure if she was gonna take leave!!!

Yes am sure India came off looking `shining` or `Incredible`. Shiningly sh*t and Incredibly ignorant.

That kind of behaviour can be expected in Delhi/Islamabad, but London and Washington!!! Come on people, do you really have to tell the world you`re such jahil, ignorant, gwah log.

Yes, such strides in the effin Peace process, What a behzti to all involved, and how bad India came off.

Ally

The Indian High Commission in London comes off as awesome compared to Indian consulate in NYC. They are a bunch of haraamis. They all get foreign posting because of some political godfather or the other. I heard of a friend who complained, so they threw the passport at him and had security kick him out. He was American citizen of Indian origin. Treatment is marginally better if you are white, well dressed and have connections.

I went to Pak embassy to get a visa. I went to the consulate line and said ``so and so`` had sent me. The guy said, accha aap tau sifarshi hain, aap front entrance sey ayen. `` :)

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re: travel across the border
I can understand Indian muslims (some of them at least) travelling to Pak to see their relatives or just to see how things are across the border but any hindu travelling to that country ought to have his head examined by a psychiatrist.
re: #6 by teshah
So, this guy is denied a visa by Indian HC in Pak and so wanted to join Lashkar-e-Tayebba in rage?
Thanks for the info, Teshah. I get daily insight into Paki mentalityby posts such as yours and it is frightening, to say the least.
Sridhar

Basically the Indian gov`t also has an attitude that the visa problem is a Muslim one, hence no real incentive to solve it. The Hindus and Sikhs who wanna go to Pak tend to be Punjabis only. A miniscule number. Largest number of people who wanna travel are Muslims from Delhi, Bihar, UP etc. In fact, back in the 90s, there was a tendency to look with suspicion at Indian Muslims who wanted to visit Pakistan. Dunno if the situation has changed now.