‘We can’t help you till you give us visas’
Bangladeshi aid workers with experience of floods wanted to come to Pakistan but were unable to get visas.
LAHORE:
Several Bangladeshi aid workers with experience of floods in their country wanted to come to Pakistan but were unable to get visas because of “bureaucratic hurdles”, a Bangladeshi rights activist told The Express Tribune.
“There shouldn’t be any visa requirement in South Asia. Our people are similar and we should learn from each other’s experiences,” said Fasial bin Majid, who is in Lahore to participate in a conference on South Asian women.
He said Bangladeshi youths were very interested in Pakistan. “Pakistani music bands including Strings and Atif Aslam are very popular and so are Pakistani cricketers,” he said.
Majid said his visit to Lahore had changed several misconceptions in his mind about Pakistan.
“Before coming to Lahore I thought people might call me a traitor seeing as I’m from Bangladesh. But whoever I’ve met and told that I am from Bangladesh has welcomed me and called me brother,” he said.
He said that he liked Lahore’s spicy food and its greenery. “It looks like a city in a garden because there are so many trees here,” he said.
He said holding regular elections had been Bangladesh’s “greatest achievement” in the last decade.
Majid, who works with Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (Bangladesh Women Progress), said his countrywomen had achieved considerable financial autonomy thanks to the microfinance schemes created by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus.
“We still have a lot of people living below the poverty line but things are improving. In many cases lower middle class women are now in a position to give money to their husbands instead of taking money from them.
The women get loans through various NGOs, buy raw material through the NGO facilitator and do work at home like knitting.
In Bangladesh we have many outlets which only display products prepared by local women workers,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 26th, 2010.
Several Bangladeshi aid workers with experience of floods in their country wanted to come to Pakistan but were unable to get visas because of “bureaucratic hurdles”, a Bangladeshi rights activist told The Express Tribune.
“There shouldn’t be any visa requirement in South Asia. Our people are similar and we should learn from each other’s experiences,” said Fasial bin Majid, who is in Lahore to participate in a conference on South Asian women.
He said Bangladeshi youths were very interested in Pakistan. “Pakistani music bands including Strings and Atif Aslam are very popular and so are Pakistani cricketers,” he said.
Majid said his visit to Lahore had changed several misconceptions in his mind about Pakistan.
“Before coming to Lahore I thought people might call me a traitor seeing as I’m from Bangladesh. But whoever I’ve met and told that I am from Bangladesh has welcomed me and called me brother,” he said.
He said that he liked Lahore’s spicy food and its greenery. “It looks like a city in a garden because there are so many trees here,” he said.
He said holding regular elections had been Bangladesh’s “greatest achievement” in the last decade.
Majid, who works with Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (Bangladesh Women Progress), said his countrywomen had achieved considerable financial autonomy thanks to the microfinance schemes created by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus.
“We still have a lot of people living below the poverty line but things are improving. In many cases lower middle class women are now in a position to give money to their husbands instead of taking money from them.
The women get loans through various NGOs, buy raw material through the NGO facilitator and do work at home like knitting.
In Bangladesh we have many outlets which only display products prepared by local women workers,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 26th, 2010.