New Indian Visa Restrictions On Pakistanis: Meet Your Sponsor Sheikh Kumar

SPECIAL REPORT | Wednesday | 14 November 2012

PakNationalists.net

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—India imposes new visa restrictions on Pakistanis.

Pakistani cricket fans traveling to watch their home team play in India will be limited to visiting five cities.  But the icing on the cake is this: Pakistani cricket fans intending to visit India will have to find an Indian 'sponsor' who would sponsor their visit.

This strange Indian condition is apparently inspired by the concept of 'sponsors' used in visa laws of Gulf countries where foreign visitors need local 'sponsors' to become eligible for a visa.

This method is used in the Gulf mainly to discourage immigrants, and as a way to generate income for citizens. Most foreigners informally pay local 'sponsors' to get a visa.

In India, it appears Indian authorities want to generate funds from Pakistani visitors through indirect ways. Instead of imposing a large tax on each visitor, which could infuriate the Pakistani government, the Indian government has resorted to the 'sponsor' concept, where Pakistanis will pay Indian citizens informally to get an Indian visa to watch cricket matches where Pakistani team is playing on Indian soil. 

In the Gulf, sponsors are paid anything between $1,500 to $6,000 depending on the type of visa. In the crazy world of cricket, diehard fans would be ready to pay to get a visa to watch a match and root for their team.

Most Pakistani visitors to India are only interested in attending cricket matches involving their home team or to visit Islamic historical landmarks like the Taj Mahal, a relic of Muslim dynastic rule in India that spawned Pakistan.

Pakistani visitors who enter India by road complain about badly constructed highways and chaos in overpopulated Indian cities. So there is not a large movement of travelers from Pakistan to India. By comparison, Pakistani highways are well maintained and, because of a smaller population, the cities are less chaotic than the ones in our eastern neighbor.

The Indian move to introduce local 'sponsors' can only be explained as a diplomatic way of limiting the number of Pakistani visitors and an attempt to levy an indirect tax on Pakistanis willing to pay to watch their home team play in India.

The irony here is that Pakistan's elected government is bending backwards to open Pakistani market to Indian goods, mostly without reciprocation from India. The Pakistani trade concessions are similar to former president Musharraf's strategic concessions, granting India unimaginable concessions in the internationally disputed region of Kashmir without similar Indian progress in resolving longstanding water and border disputes.