Comments on: Thinking the unthinkable: visa-free travel between India and Pakistan

By: Abbas

Abbas — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:14:42 +0000

I Am An Indian And Heartly Loved Pakistan And I am Sure Most People Of Pakistan And India Loves Each Other, I Love Karachi And People Of karachi And When Today Both Country (ploitician )Also Knows Thier iS No Way Better Then friendship,No way better Then Love,India And Pakistan Dont Have any Other Way Then To Love each others,And I am Sure One day Will be(Not Sure Of time )That Visa Will Be very easy,even not free but it wil be on arrival visa,And India And pakistan People Can easily Go to Each others.

As Far As Terrorist and Others ,they Dont Need A Visa To Enter Any country,So It Does Not matter How Many terrorist want to come or not,they are coming(if any)india even visa is not easy,so we must forget them and we must think people to people contact and one day wil be come thier will be no terrorist in any country,because only love is the way which can win the terror.

By: Ali Azam

Ali Azam — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:48:21 +0000

For years I believed that India and Pakistan shared a common culture and heritage and that any animosity that existed between them was a result of the Partition where thousands died and millions got uprooted, leaving a never healing wound in the hearts of all Indians and Pakistanis.

Being a Pakistani and Punjabi I would loved to have seen soft borders between the two Punjabs. However day by day I am reminded of my naive optimism. The core of India today is Maharastra, Gujrat and southern Indian states, which have little common heritage with Pakistan except for being enemies and having a deep rooted hatred. As a result of this other Indian regions newer generations ae also following the same mantra.

The same is some what true of Pakistan, social experiment that is Pakistan has resulted in two parrell cultures, the local historic culture of the regions and and more golbal Islamic culture. As a result of this and an over-powering army most Pakistani’s either feel animosity towards the Indians or indifference.

Sadly for the ever shrinking minority in between (including myself) we are just remined that cultures and heritage are a chaing phenomenon.

By: joy

joy — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:55:20 +0000

I would go to the other extreme and say that with more and more pakistani terrorists infiltrating into India and ombing our cities… we must out a complete STOP to all pakistani nationals visiting India.
Lives of our people are more important that trying to be decent and polite with Pakistan.

By: Shantanu Chatterjee

Shantanu Chatterjee — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:14:05 +0000

Absolutely not! The maximum that can be done is an increase in visa quota to educated pakistanis only.I don’t want madrsa educated farm labourers to come into my country.

By: mala

mala — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:49:58 +0000

wow!

zardari and sharif!!!

If you can make visa free travel between india and pakistan you will go down in history as the biggest heros. this will be a dream come true. this will be real peace initiative. this will finish the terror and war in the region. money spent in defence will be spend for welfare of the people. we are one people one family. this has been my dream and my friends called me mad. but i knew one day this is going to happen. i am an indian citizen. and will like to see interation of people of both countires. this is the beginning. alllah and bhagwan will make it a success. Zardari sharif long live. hope to see this in reallty soon like millions pakistanies and indians my dream will sure come true.

By: Nirupama

Nirupama — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:14:14 +0000

As an Indian living and working in Islamabad (I’m a journalist) I know the kind of demand there is for an Indian visa here. At least once every week, I have someone calling me — sometimes complete strangers who say they got my number from the friend of a friend of a friend — asking if I can help out with getting them a visa.
From what I know of how our two countries work, visa-free travel is very, very far away. The “national security” establishments on both sides will ensure it never happens.
If they can loosen up the tight regime that exists now, that would be a big stride forward. They’re talking about “group tourism” as part of this new “liberalised” regime, which means giving tourist visas to a group of not less than 10 people, who apply for visas through an approved tourist agency. But then, they’ve been talking about these proposals since 2005. And where are we now? 2008.
The most number of visa applicants in Pakistan are from Karachi and other urban areas in Sindh ( that’s where most of the migrants from India live and therefore the place with the max. number of divided families). But as everything between India and Pakistan has to be strictly reciprocal, Pakistan will not allow India to reopen its Karachi consulate unless it finds a place for the Mumbai consulate. The Pakistan govt hasn’t been able to find a place in Mumbai, plus it’s all very tied up to Jinnah House, and it’s more complicated now because Nusli Wadia’s mom Dina (Jinnah’s daughter) has claimed it as hers in the Supreme Court.
So looks like Karachi wallahs have to put up with coming to Islamabad for their visas for the foreseebale future. I met a dentist’s technician from karachi in the visa line outside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. He’d managed to get one day’s leave to come and apply for the visa. He’d paid a hefty airfare. And he’d to take the evening flight back. And then, when he was two people away from the counter, it closed. Things have improved since then, there are more counters and it’s open longer. But having this facility in Karachi would help much more. Sadly it won’t happen.
Nirupama

By: david

david — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:55:47 +0000

I really don’t think its in India’s interest for visa-free travel, particularly as Pakistan was created in order to divide and destroy India. Of another major concern is Bangladesh. Bangladesh is now the world’s major source of illegal migrants and bogus refugee claimants. Many of these are organized gang members and their entry is facilitated by the corrupt Communist Party running West Bengal which makes millions from this illegal migration (as does the government of Bangladesh). Bangladeshi migrants pose both an economic threat to Indians as well as a security threat. There is also the issue of racism as Bangladeshi migrants discriminate against the local Indians. Its unfortunate that the socialists and communists running India plan on doing nothing to stop this major threat to India.

By: anwar

anwar — Sun, 18 May 2008 18:18:30 +0000

The problem is difference in the set philosophies. For us the rights of the neighbours are almost close to that of near relatives and forms the fundelementals of our ideology (unless the neighbour proves otherwise). For the Indian philosopher Chankiyia neighbours are born enemeies. where does one go with such a mindset of fanatic Brahmins?
If live and let live is the Ahnsa beliefs and that of Mahatama Ghandi then why deny Pakistan Kashmir and the rivers unless you want Pakistan to die thirsty so that you may feel cool? We however will take another recourse if thirst is is to be put in our neck. Would it not be better to find a peaceful means of solving our disputes so that the region mutually gets benefitted rather than otherwise!?

By: deepak

deepak — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:30:03 +0000

No way india should allow visa free travel. infact india should not allow even visa travel also for pakis.

By: beecee

beecee — Sat, 17 May 2008 20:35:56 +0000

This is a silly proposal by Nawaz Sharif, made at at the end of his interview with Tehelka. Even he, a bear of tiny brain, must know that there will never, ever, be a visa-free regime. It is impracticable; utterly impossible.

Of course everyone would welcome it — but we all know that the main beneficiaries would be drug smugglers, crooks of all natures, and terrorists. Current regulations are bureaucratically hideous, and cross-border families and other genuine, innocent, travellers suffer from government-encouraged inertia and deliberate and sometimes bloody-minded obstruction on both sides. (Any readers ever gone through Wagah? It can be mega-tedious, let me tell you.)

But given the distrust between India and Pakistan — some of it justified — it is necessary to filter out visa applicants whose reason(s) for seeking travel might be less than innocent.

But Nawaz Sharif has no right to state that Pakistan would effect a visa-free agreement unilaterally. That would require approval by government, of which he is not a member. He has not been elected to Pakistan’s National Assembly. He has no mandate from the people of Pakistan to speak for them. His comment about visas, as with other observations he made in his interview, was made as a private citizen.

We keep hearing national policy pronouncements from Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif.

But who elected them to make such statements? Why are they speaking for Pakistan? Is this democracy?