Front Page   

India to fund treatment of 20 Pak. children

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI July 24. Noor Fatima has opened Indian doors for other Pakistani children. Nine days after the two-and-a-half-year-old was operated upon for congenital heart disease at a Bangalore hospital, the Government today announced that it would foot the bill for 20 other Pakistani children requiring medical care.

The Government has officially acknowledged what has been an open and welcome secret — that Noor has captured the imagination of the people of India and Pakistan.

As she recovers in hospital, the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, told the Pakistani High Commissioner, Aziz Ahmed Khan, in person that New Delhi would also facilitate the process of issuing visas for Pakistani children wanting to come to India for medical treatment.

The External Affairs Ministry spokesman, who gave an account of this meeting, said that Mr. Sinha had conveyed this to Mr. Khan ``taking into account the popular response in India to the Noor Fatima case''.

``The Government has also decided at this stage to fully fund the travel, stay and medical treatment of 20 Pakistani children. The details will be worked out through our High Commission in Islamabad,'' he added.

Clearly, Noor has been able to accomplish what diplomats might fail to do on occasion. She has shown that the future of India and Pakistan lies in a cooperative future; not in confrontation. In the past, too, Pakistanis have availed themselves of medical facilities in India. But baby Noor is different. She came on the ``dosti bus'' with her parents, who have shown a new face of Pakistan to India and Indians.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• End to Opposition boycott of Fernandes in sight
• Supreme Court persuades Tamil Nadu Govt. to take back sacked employees
• All but 2,200 to be reinstated
• India, Pak. renew contact
• India to fund treatment of 20 Pak. children
• SC clears all-India quota for medical admissions
• Minister's kin kidnapped
• 2 die in cloudburst
• Film screening banned
• Togadia barred entry

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu