Friday, November 5, 2010

Visa biasness towards Pakistanis: The image of Pakistan in the international society

Pakistanis has faced a severe blow to their image in face of the recent threats of terrorism that have adversely affected the way Pakistanis are portrayed in the international society.  Pakistani visiting foreign countries are subjected to humiliation in terms prolonged waiting, checking, etc as they are eyed upon with suspicion and fear of possibility of a threat to peace and security. This generally negative image of Pakistani has been frowned upon by many Pakistanis who had to go through discrimination and pain-staking measures just because of the created image although it certainly isn’t true for all individuals residing in Pakistan.

One of the discrimination faced by Pakistani nowadays is in terms of difficulties in getting visas. The procedures made complicated stating security reasons; visa rejection has also become a common fiasco. Pakistani were denied visas during the common wealth games in India and it has also been learnt now through independent inspector John Vine that the UK Border Agency may also be illegally discriminating against Pakistani for visas to UK. Pakistan is the fourth largest source of applications to enter UK and higher evidential requirements are put up for Pakistanis which isn’t clear. They give the reason of the process being designed to target visa fraud and made ‘worryingly inconsistent visa decisions’.

In is tragic to see many suffer because of the actions of few. The finger at the Pakistanis is the finger at everyone living in Pakistan and when we collectively suffer, we need to forego the divides among us to guard our honour and dignity, correcting our image to be able to live with pride.

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