Daily Times

Earlier this month, Pakistani media and social media platforms were rife with protest and criticism of Indian government on visa refusal to a Pakistani woman Faiza who was in dire need to have her jaw cancer treated in India. Her visa could not be issued since Indian government had made the visa requirements for Pakistanis stricter in May 2017. The new requirements for her medical visa application included an endorsement from Pakistan’s Foreign Office, which was missing. While Pakistan media criticised and Foreign Office deplored this requirement, it’s hardly surprising given the historic state of enmity and aggravating bilateral relations between India and Pakistan in recent years. It reminds me of a short story ‘Yazid’ from Manto, the most celebrated writer of Urdu short stories, that questions the absurdity of expecting fairness from an enemy i.e. India should offer us some reflection.

This story was also translated into English as “When the Waters Will Flow Again”. Set in the context of Indo-Pak Partition and immediate years after, the story revolves around one villager Karamdad who despite losing his father and wife’s brother strives to promote sanity. As war between India and Pakistan gets imminent, the news spread that India is about the divert rivers to starve Pakistan of water. Aghast, the villagers signify this Indian act to the legendary cruelty of Ummayad Caliph Yazid towards Imam Husain (RA), the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and his followers in Karbala. Much like the rest of Pakistanis, the village headman is found condemning and insulting India and its leader Nehru. Karamdad stops him form vilification and asks ‘how can you expect a country considered to be an enemy to show kindness?’ He goes on to say ‘given the opportunity Pakistan too would do same’.

Pakistan should continue its claim over Kashmir diplomatically. Meaning without encouraging local outfits to take matters into their own hands. For this has so far only discredited the country’s case at the global level while  promoting militancy at home

The story has a moral message that so long as people of India and Pakistan continue to see each other as a nemesis, devoid of showing empathy to each other’s concern and insecurities, it will remain a far cry to enjoy the fruits of neighbourly understanding, fairness, and peace. Not that Indian media and the government are doing all things wonderful, but just as it takes two to tango, we need to do our part of introspection. Sure, we have a history of wars over territorial claims with India but so does, for instance, China which is in multiple territorial disputes with India for as much as around 145,000 sq KMs including a whole of Arunachal Pradesh; and such issues exist between enumerable countries over the globe. However, bilateral differences between two countries are better left for state level diplomacy to take care of while people are discouraged to form non-state militia to physically deal with such issues.

If China, despite multiple territorial disputes and diverging opinions over international issues with India, can have far more friendlier relation with India, why has it become impossible for us? It might surprise but India’s largest international trade partner isn’t the US but China, with an overall trade worth $70 billion. One can’t even think of comparing it with the trade volume of just $2 billion between India and Pakistan. Besides, the visa regime between India and China is enviable as compared with what it’s between India and Pakistan or even China and Pakistan. Routine visa processing time between India and China is 2-4 days, while it’s no less than five weeks between India and Pakistan, except for medical emergency visa to India which can be granted within a week. On the other hand, despite having sweeter-than-honey relations with China, it’s no ordinary feat for a commoner in Pakistanis to get a Chinese visit visa.

Among the many things we don’t learn from China is supremacy of diplomacy in bilateral relation, especially in case of India. Pakistan, like China and other countries, should still continue to have its claim over Kashmir diplomatically but without encouraging local groups and organisations to take matter in their hands which has so far only discredited Pakistan’s case on Kashmir globally and promoted militancy at home too. Not that Indian counterparts’ narrative is free of anti-Pakistan overtones, on our part our media and government’s narrative continues to inculcate hatred among masses against ‘enemy’ Hindu India, which has only helped regressive fundamentalists and war-mongering forces inside Pakistan. This in turn has made it extremely difficult governments to initiate peace process and maintain peaceful relations. The current enhanced visa curbs are consequence of the failing approach.

After all, how can it elate any Pakistani when our people are frequently seen appealing the foreign minister of ‘enemy’ India on Twitter and mainstream media to intervene for a mundane visa to have an affordable life-saving medical treatment there? Unless we swap our view from an enemy to a neighbour, we should not expect fairness or friendliness.

The writer is a sociologist with interest in history and politics. He tweets @ZulfiRao1

Published in Daily Times, July 27^th 2017.