We've heard the British authorities and their sheepish reservations regarding denial of visa to Pakistanis. What the visiting British secretaries needed to hear and didn't is as follows: Pakistan should reciprocate by holding back visas to UK nationals because many of them come here, attend or visit militant madressahs, make hefty donations to them to fund their militant activities inside Pakistan or acquire training and go back not only to the UK but to the world, bringing a bad name to Pakistan. Such Britons pose a serious national security threat to this country. Imagine the upheaval and the outrage caused in London.  

But if you are a Pakistani, you have no son, daughter, a parent, a spouse or a terminally ill close friend or a relation you want to unite with. You are on your own, alone and subhuman—if human at all. Unless, of course, you can show that you have been wronged by the rest of the subhuman Pakistanis who have put you through incarceration and/or a life-threatening ordeal; or indeed if you are a politician wanted for murder and mayhem, and seeking a stint abroad. 

Consider if the following scenario rings a bell: Long queues of visa seekers outside foreign missions in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore; public hue and cry at inadequate facilities in the make-shift waiting areas; foreign missions at pains to improve the amenities, sheepishly raising visa processing fees after duly informing the public in the national print media. Then, when your turn finally came at the counter, a few intimidating questions were asked before you were told, ‘You’re lying’, and refused the visa, while granting the right to appeal with additional documents required with the application the next time round.

Unsuspected applicants were not grilled at all and politely told to come back in the afternoon to collect their passports with the visa stamped.

This was the norm throughout the mid-1980s and the ‘90s. Before that most countries, except our best friends-in-need in the Gulf, stamped your passports upon arrival at a port of entry.

And now the rude update: most western foreign missions have scrapped their consular sections altogether; a few have just retained a scaled down presence in Islamabad only. Of those that do, most do not wish to see you enter their premises; they require that you file your application along with a long list of documents, including bank account/property ownership details, proof of travel and health insurance, medical test reports from designated laboratories only, etc. with a courier service provider. You are told not to bother calling the embassy to check the status of your application as they don’t have enough staff to handle such queries. There’s no telling if or when you will get your visa. The wait can be excruciating and long. Others, including the UK, have relocated their consular sections outside Pakistan, where the wait is even longer. Even getting a visa does not mean a smooth sailing at the entry point. You are likely to be grilled further when you land at a foreign shore. Most require you to have a transit visa even if you’re landing in their country to change planes without having to go through immigration.

This more or less is the norm with most countries President Zardari has decorated as ‘Friends of Democratic Pakistan’. Those outside the FoDP have enacted their own rules. Take Indonesia, for instance. Jakarta has scrapped all tourist visa for Pakistanis applying to visit Indonesia from a third country where they may be residing for a few months. An applicant needs a personal guarantor who must go in person to the ministry concerned in Jakarta to explain why he/she may be inviting a Pakistani to Indonesia. The same guarantor is then required to be present at the port of arrival. Only Pakistani and Iraqi nationals are extended this special ‘courtesy’ by the brotherly Muslim nation. The rest can come and go as they please. Cambodia also requires a personal guarantor for visiting Pakistanis.

Here, certain other oddities also come to mind: Brotherly Islamic countries like Kuwait, for instance, can impose an extended, complete ban on visa to Pakistanis from time to time. Holland has followed suit of late. The Islamic Republic of Iran can require you to know your azaan, prayer and a few compulsory ablutionary rituals, the significance of certain suras and terms used in the Quran, etc. A visa officer was furious when a friend sought a tourist visa, and was told that Iran had no night clubs so they didn’t want any dirty tourists going there. The ‘Country of the Imam of the Time’ only accepts God-fearing, pious pilgrims to its many shrines. Syrians, on the other hand, can be equally furious if you ask for a tourist map or information. ‘Only Zionist terrorists require a map of Syria!’ you can well be told. China, with whom our friendship runs deeper than the Indian Ocean and higher than the Himalayas, has an equally menacing visa regime for the increasingly Muslim Pakistanis.

Here’s the last word though: Visa is not a right but a privilege which can be denied, with or without prejudice—even if that means keeping families, sons, daughters, spouses and parents from reuniting. Only when Pakistan denies a foreigner such a privilege our ambassador in Washington can go hysterical. Horror of horrors, when Iran denies someone entry or exit, it calls for global condemnation from rights activists, and flicks like ‘Not without my daughter’ can become tear-jerking blockbusters.

The rest is just a visa regime.