For this relief much thanks

It is edifying to note that India has decided to ease restrictions on Pakistanis wishing to undertake medical treatment in the neighbouring country. The step — announced on Tuesday by Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and described by her country’s media as an Independence Day gift to Pakistan — will be hugely beneficial to a number of patients in our country, especially those who seek affordable and quality healthcare in the region, as opposed to the West where costs are prohibitive. Many of these patients choose India because they are on a tight budget and want to save millions of rupees in treatment costs there. Several complex medical procedures are carried out in cities such as Chennai at a fraction of the cost in the United Kingdom and the United States. Each month these health facilities treat as many as 500 foreign patients or more.

The latest move also means that New Delhi has scrapped its previous precondition for a medical visa — which was introduced three months ago and required direct recommendation from our ex-foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz. That precondition not only slowed down the process of obtaining a medical visa but also discouraged many other patients from applying for the same.

While we welcome New Delhi’s humanitarian gesture and appreciate the goodwill it has generated, we can’t help but point out the need for more such gestures. Despite a marked escalation in hostilities between the two countries in recent months and the mutual distrust shared between them, New Delhi and Islamabad should do their best to encourage people-to-people contacts.

Of late, in particular, the Indian foreign minister has been receptive to the needs of Pakistani patients after they made direct appeals to her for visa facilitation. But sadly one can’t say the same for other Indian authorities. There is also a need for our authorities to keep humanitarian needs uppermost and respond to our neighbours with as much goodwill as possible.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2017.

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