New Delhi: In a humanitarian gesture, Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj has announced that India will grant medical visa in all bona fide cases from Pakistan that are pending with the Indian government.
The announcement on Tuesday night, which coincided with Independence Day celebrations across the country, comes as a relief for Pakistani nationals who could not earlier procure Indian medical visa because former Pakistan Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz did not give them the required recommendation letter.
“On the auspicious occasion of India’s Independence day, we will grant medical visa in all bona fide cases pending with us,” Swaraj said in a tweet.
From now on, medical visa applicants from Pakistan will no longer be required to procure a letter of recommendation from their country’s foreign affairs adviser.
As per an EAM notification issued in May, only a letter of recommendation by Pakistan’s foreign affairs adviser would enable a Pakistani national to get a medical visa for India. “A letter of recommendation by Pakistan Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz will enable a Pakistani national to get a medical visa for India. We have suggested that their Foreign Minister or Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaz Aziz give a recommendation letter and it will be cleared immediately, without any delay,” EAM spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said in May.
Aziz is no longer Pakistan’s foreign affairs adviser as he has been appointed as deputy chairman of planning commission.
Following the arrest and subsequent death sentence of ex-navy officer Kulbhusan Jadhav, the chill in Indo-Pak relations had reached the space of medical tourism with hospitals in India getting almost nil patient traffic from Pakistan.
Significantly, on Sunday, Swaraj had assured a Pakistani woman, who was suffering from cancer, of granting a visa for her treatment in India. The Minister conveyed the decision to Faiza Tanveer on Twitter.
Most patients from Pakistan suffering from liver and heart ailments go to reputed and specialised hospitals in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and other cities. But in the last four months, not a single Pakistani was granted a medical visa on the recommendation of their country’s foreign affairs adviser.
On July 18, however, a patient from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) was granted a medical visa by India. According to Swaraj, he did not need any recommendation from the Pakistan government because PoK was “an integral part of India”.
