New Delhi, July 10 (newsin.asia): Faiza Tanveer, a Pakistani cancer patient suffering from a dangerous condition and desperate to get treated in an Indian hospital, has become a victim of the on-going India-Pakistan conflict.
India on Monday tried to corner Pakistan on the question of issuing a medical visa for a Pakistani cancer patient by Faiza by indirectly linking to it to Pakistan’s reluctance to give a visa to the mother of the alleged Indian spy, Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is currently in the death row in a Pakistani prison.
India considers the spy case a frame up to show that India is up to mischief in Karachi and Balochistan, especially because consular access was denied despite repeated requests and the “trial” was conducted in camera.
India’s Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, said that visas will be issued to Pakistani patients on the recommendation of Sartaj Aziz, Foreign Affairs Adviser to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. But she added that Sartaj Aziz had not even bothered to acknowledge her letter requesting the grant of a visa to alleged Indian spy Jadhav’s mother to visit the condemned man.
This puts Aziz in a bind. If he recommends the case of Faiza Tanveer, expecting Swaraj to give her visa, he will be morally bound to allow Jadhav’s mother to visit him. But the Pakistan government has been consistently refusing to allow Indian consular access to the alleged spy. Jadhav, a retired Indian naval officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court. Subsequently he appealed to the Pakistan army chief for a pardon but is still to get a reply.
Swaraj’s Tweets
In a series of tweets, Swaraj said she sympathized with “those seeking medical visa for their treatment in India”, adding that she saw no reason for Sartaj Aziz to “hesitate to give his recommendation for nationals of his own country.”
She further assured Pakistani nationals of an immediate visa once the adviser issued a recommendation.
The Indian minister further added she had personally written a letter to Aziz requesting him to grant a visa for the mother of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jhadav who wants to meet her son in prison. However, she said Aziz had not acknowledged the letter she wrote to him.
Last week the High Commission rejected the visa application of Faiza Tanveer citing deteriorating relations between the two countries as the reason for refusal. Tanveer was due to receive treatment at the Inderprastha Dental College and Hospital (IDCH) in Ghaziabad for a recurrent ameloblastoma, a cancerous oral tumour which is aggressive in nature.
Nonetheless, Faiza was told by mission officials that her daughter could get a medical visa if Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz wrote to Swaraj, requesting for it. Faiza appealed to politicians in both countries to help facilitate her application.
