Ailing PoK resident to get visa, no letter from Aziz needed: Sushma

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday waived a newly-imposed pre-condition to issue a medical visa to an ailing youth living in Rawalkot, which is in the part of Pakistan occupied Kashmir .

External Affairs Minister promised to issue a visa to 24-year-old Osama Ali to facilitate his travel from Rawalkot to New Delhi and undergo treatment for a tumour in his liver. Though he could not get a recommendation from Pakistan Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Advisor, Sartaj Aziz; Swaraj said that Ali would be issued a visa because the area he lived in was an integral part of India, albeit under illegal occupation of the neighbouring country.

“POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required,” tweeted Swaraj. She posted on Twitter after media reports quoted Ali’s father Javed Naz Khan appealing to her to waive the requirement of submitting a recommendation from Aziz. Her move was aimed at re-assering New Delhi’s position that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, including the area under illegal occupation of Pakistan, was an integral part of India.

New Delhi has over the past few months restricted grant of visas to Pakistanis seeking to undergo medical treatment in India, particularly after a military court in the neighbouring country sentenced Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, to death.

New Delhi has been insisting that all applications for visas for citizens of Pakistan to come to India to undergo medical treatment must be accompanied by a recommendation from Aziz – the counterpart of Swaraj in Sharif’s Government in Islamabad.

Aziz, however, did not issue any letter of recommendation to Pakistanis seeking medical visas to travel to India. Some letters recommending issue of medical visas were issued by the officials in charge of the South Asia division of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan Government, but those were rejected by the High Commission of India in Islamabad.

Swaraj on July 10 criticized Aziz for not responding to her request to grant visa to Jadhav’s mother Avantika Jadhav. She also linked New Delhi’s refusal to issue medical visas to citizens of Pakistan for coming to India with Islamabad’s denial of visa to Avantika for traveling to the neighbouring country, where her son had been put on a death row.

“I have my sympathies for all Pakistan nationals seeking medical visa for their treatment in India,” External Affairs Minister had tweeted. She had apparently reacted to media-reports on a woman from Pakistan being denied visa to come to India for undergoing chemotherapy for a cancerous oral tumour. “All that we require is his (Aziz) recommendation for the grant of medical visa to Pakistan nationals,” Swaraj posted on Twitter. “ I see no reason why should he hesitate to give his recommendation for nationals of his own country.”