Dubai-based Pakistani man gets Indian visa for his son who has rare heart disease

In less than 12 hours after receiving a request, Sushma Swaraj directs embassy in Dubai to grant visas to the family

In less than 12 hours after receiving a medical visa request by a Pakistani national based in Dubai, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has directed an embassy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to grant visas to the family whose son has a rare heart disease.

Responding to Touqeer Ali's tweet, the minister said: "Please do not worry. I [Sushma Swaraj] have asked to grant visa for the open heart surgery of your child to India."

Pls do not worry. I have asked @cgidubai to grant visa for the open heart surgery of your child in India. pic.twitter.com/UgLFtPLtIV https://t.co/49kIcBXx9b

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) November 12, 2017

Ali, the father, tweeted on Saturday to the foreign minister that he had applied for a visa through Consulate General of India in the UAE on September 18. Ali said his son needed a rare open-heart surgery for Congenitally Corrected Transposition of the Great Arteries [CCTGA], requesting her help for a visa.

@SushmaSwaraj Ma'm our Son has CCTGA which is very rare in nature n needs open heart surgery. There's no such surgery done in pak ever, hardly a case in UAE but India is specialist in it. We're really in need of help of India.
Visa applied on 18 Sep thru @cgidubai

— Touqeer Ali (@TouqeerAli85) November 11, 2017

In October, Swaraj had also directed Indian embassy in Indonesia to grant visa to a Pakistani-origin woman whose ailing husband has to undergo liver transplant in Chennai.

The minister issued the directives for Shafiqa Bano after the latter told the minister her husband had to undergo a liver transplant in India.



The minister is believed to have used her discretion to clear way for Bano without referring her case to Indian home affairs ministry.

Clearance from the department is mandatory for visa clearance concerning Pakistani-origin persons, especially in applications made in the third world countries.

India and Pakistan have been involved in a tense verbal and diplomatic spat over the security situation in held Kashmir and frequent skirmishes on the Line of Control (LoC).

More than 100 protesters have been killed in the occupied Himalayan valley while several incidents of unprovoked Indian aggression on the LoC have frequently occurred in recent past.