KARACHI: I have come to know through the media that President Asif Ali Zardari will be travelling to India on April 8, on a personal visit. Through this letter I want to request the president to take up the issue of the visa regime between both countries with his Indian counterparts.
I was born an Indian and married a Pakistani in 1992. I surrendered my Indian passport and received Pakistani nationality after my marriage. I have visited India about five to six times in the last 20 years to visit my family. The procedure for obtaining an Indian visa was very simple till a few years ago, but now the Indian government has drafted a sponsorship certificate, which requires endorsement of an Indian government official.
Last month I asked my family, living in Pune, to send me the documents required for the visa but despite their best efforts, they have not been able to find a single government official who could endorse the sponsorship certificate. The moment they learn that it is for a Pakistani, they refuse to endorse the document.
I lost my mother a few years back while the Kargil war was raging and flights between the two countries were suspended. I lost my father last year, who died of prostate cancer and I could not visit India for his funeral either. I urge the president to please take up the visa regime issue with the Indian government and ask it to soften visa rules, particularly for those women and their families who are married to Pakistanis and wish to visit their families in India.
Rizwana Suriya
Published in The Express Tribune, April 5th, 2012.
