The six-member Pakistani delegation that travelled to Hyderabad to attend the eighth edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit-2017 had some tense time, unsure of securing Indian visas given the strict norms governing the procedure.
But every thing became simple whe the US State Department and US Embassy in Pakistan stepped in and worked closely with the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. "The people in Indian High Commission were phenomenally nice to us", said Meenah Tariq, Head of Strategy and Accelerator, Invest 2 Innovate, Pakistan, who actually was lucky to get the visa within one day.
Meenah was one of the last persons in the group to get the visa but first few people who applied for visa had some trouble, she told The Hindu. Her team member Sadia Bashir was in US till November 1 and so it was difficult for her to apply 30 days in advance and there were only 25 days left when she was back in Pakistan. Sadia works for a start-up project supported by US State Department that counsels women.
Disappointment was in store for Sadia when Indian embassy staff told her that she could not apply for visa as the mandatory 30-day time was not there and she was also asked to submit a long list of documents right from her company registration document from Pakistani Chamber of Commerce.
"Bureaucracy whether in India or Pakistan is the same. It takes a lot of time to get all the required documents. That was when I went to the US Embassy and explained the issue. They called the Indian Embassy and had a collaboration with the team and requested their help to let the delegates travel to India", she said. The GES -2017 is jointly organised by the US and Indian governments.
After intervention from the US State Department, Indian side did not insist on other documents other than the registration for GES event, passport and facilitated the team to deposit their documents in the designated drop boxes and then the visas were given within two days, Sadia said.
Sadia had good words for Indian Embassy officials. "They called us in person and inquired whether everything was going smooth. After arriving in India, however, one of the male members was asked to report to the police and that had robbed him of his time he would have spent at the GES. He missed the event inaugurated by Ivanka Trump, Advisor to US President, as he could not make it in time to the venue at the HICC. Even on Thursday, the last day of the event, the team members said he was away to report to the police".
Meenah said that they were given only city specific visas — she got for Hyderabad and Delhi —— and she could not even visit Taj Mahal in Agra. She would need an additional visa for that. Sadia was allowed to travel to only Hyderabad and Mumbai. The visas were given for 10 days for the entire team. "Most of us are lucky that we do not have police reporting except for Khalid Bajwa".
Other than the initial visa hassles, the team members are unanimous in praising people's warmth and affection. They really welcomed us. Sadia recalled that the Indian Airlines woman staffer who boarded her in Pakistan literally exclaimed in delight that a Pakistani woman was given visa to travel to India.
Sadia shared that the hotel staff where she was put up were equally warm and gave her special treatment when they learnt that she was from Pakistan and offered her all assistance to let her explore the city.
“People-to-people bonding is exceptional between the two countries and they literally want us to meet more irrespective of issues at the the 'higher level',” Sadia says.
Meenah, however, said the bigger problem was that there were no direct flights and that was something both countries had to sort out. "Door to door, it took 30 hours for us to get to Hyderabad from Islamabad as we had to fly via Abu Dhabi, Mumbai and to Hyderabad and all the flights had long layover. If we have direct flight, it will make it so easy for people to collaborate and work together"
About GES, Meenah said the event was really useful and they made some fantastic connections and networks. Sadia met some in game developing sector in India and she was already talking about ways to collaborate with them and create programmers with them.
