I came
across recently a heart touching story of a Pakistani woman, who had
come to India to meet her ailing father. The poor lady got stuck in
India and could not go back because of that greatest bane or woe of
many international travellers: a visa. Those of my readers, who have
been on international travel, will easily vouch that getting a visa
is perhaps the most formidable obstacle that can come in way of any
planned international travel.
There
are some lucky people; mostly citizens of either western or affluent
countries; who are spared of the hardships of getting visas, as they
have free access to enter any country of their choice without
obtaining a prior visa. Let us leave them aside and concentrate on
people from other countries, who are not so fortunate as far as visa
regimes are concerned. I have had my own share of irritations and
exasperation caused while fulfilling the visa requirements of various
countries. But narrating those would be another long post, so I would
just restrict my self to one episode. While travelling in US, I went
to city of Buffalo; N.Y. state to see the Niagara falls. After having
watched the falls from US side, I thought of just walking across to
other side of a bridge that connects US and Canada. I walked to the
other side but found that a Canadian customs building blocked my view
of the falls. I did not have a Canadian visa and never wanted to
enter Canada. I just wanted to see how the falls look from that side.
Canadian customs refused and did not allow me that and I had to walk
back. Luckily I had a multi-entry US visa, so I could enter US
again. I do not know what would have happened to me if I had a single
entry visa for US. Some relatives of mine had this unfortunate
experience while visiting Singapore recently, from where they
travelled to Malaysia. Since they had to catch their return flight
from Singapore, they returned back. At the entry point they realised
that their visa was a single entry visa and was no longer valid. They
could not return to Malaysia because even that visa was single entry.
It look lot of efforts to get a temporary transit visa to enter
Singapore.
In
many big cities there are two international airports (e.g. Heathrow
and Gatwick) and flights to different destinations leave from either
of the two. If by mistake your itinerary involves transfer between
these two airports, you have it, because you just can not do that
unless you have visa for that country. In earlier days, when we
booked tickets through travel agents, they took care of all these
things, including visa. Now a days, buying on line tickets has its
own peril. You need to find out whether you need a visa and have to
arrange it yourself. I could really go on and on. But let us return
to our main story; that of the Pakistani women.
This
Pakistani lady Mai Fatima, her husband Mir Muhammad and her two
children leave in Ghoki tehsil in Pakistan. Mir Muhammad is a
subsistence farmer hailing from Ghotki district in Pakistan’s
northern Sindh region. Mai's father's family used to live at
Basanpir in Jaisalmer district, Rajasthan state of India. In February
2014, when Mai was expecting her third child and was 7 months
pregnant, she received an urgent message from her mother, that her
father was not keeping well. Extremely worried, Mai obtained visas
for India for her family and left for India. Unfortunately, after Mai
reached her father's house in India, her father expired within next
few days. The time passed quickly as Mai had to console her mother,
who was in terrible grief. At her mother's insistence, she got her
visa extended by another month.
All
this was natural, but meanwhile nature took its own course and Mai
went into labour and gave birth on April 14 2014 to her third child,
a baby boy, at New Rajasthan Hospital in India. Since her extended
visa was to expire, Mai and her family left for Pakistan.
Unfortunately in the course of events, she had forgotten the visa
regime of India, as a result of which, her few days old baby was not
allowed to go to Pakistan by the immigration officers at border
point of Munabao and she had to return back to Jaisalmer in India.
Mai was however absolutely determined about one thing and
steadfastly refused to return to Pakistan without her new born son.
According to Indian citizenship laws, a child born in India could
qualify as a citizen only if one of the parents is an Indian citizen.
Since Mai and Mir both were not Indian citizens, their son also had
no future in India
Next
20 days were terrible for Mai and her husband Mir as they ran from
pillar to post to get visa for their new child and extend their visas
also. In just one week, she had to travel to Munabo, Delhi, Jodhpur
and Jaisalmer many times and she and her newborn had to face lot of
problems and both she and her child fell sick. Her son, 20-day old
sohail could not bear the heat and he suffered from diarrhea and
vomiting. Finally last week Mai and her guarantor Rasool khan managed
to get an appointment with Pakistan high commissioner in New Delhi
and could narrate her story to the Pakistan high commissioner at the
Pakistan embassy. The embassy within an hour issued the visa and
necessary documents to the newborn.
The
documents issue finally settled, Mai lost no time and finally said
good bye to India and left for Pakistan on 2nd
May 2014 from Jaisalmer for Jodhpur and at Jodhpur she left for
Munabao by Thar express at night from Bhagat ki Kothi railway
station. Next day, at Munabao railway station, immigration officers
after checking the documents of newborn and other members gave
clearance to go to Pakistan. At 3.30pm, the train entered the
Pakistan border and finally she was home. What really touched me was
that this simple woman, who had to go through such hardships because
of a simple miscalculation about her date of delivery, bore no ill
will towards any one. While leaving for Pakistan, at Munabao station,
her eyes were filled with tears of joy. She bid farewell to security
personnel by waving hands. That is something really great.
5th
May 2014
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