IN his first interview to an Indian reporter, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he would visit India whether he was invited or not. Since taking the oath, he has been in favour of India and importing electricity from there. He has also sent a special letter to Manmohan Singh for bilateral relations.

I wish Nawaz Sharif heard the tale of one Pakistani travelling to India to meet his/her relative. First, it is a very lengthy procedure to get an Indian visa. One of the requirements for a visa is to get a sponsorship letter from India which has to be signed by one of the government officials in India.

Then many documents from the visitor and his relative in India are required. When a Pakistani reaches India, he is made to fill manually and sign different forms. When he reaches his destination, he has to report to the CID office within 24 hours.

There is so much manual work at the CID office – it is located in a very congested area (Craft Market) -- that they take three to four hours for the visitor to get things done. All this is done deliberately to harass and discourage Pakistanis from travelling to India.

Imagine a country which exports software cannot make any software for such work at the airport and the CID office. Contrary to this, an Indian gets a Pakistani visa in a week with no documents at all. He has to fill a simple visa application and a few documents.

After five Indian army personnel died owing to their own mistake, they have been continuously violating the LoC, killing many innocent villagers, and releasing water from dams to flood our villages. They also burnt Pakistani painters’ work in Hyderabad, Deccan, have refused bilateral talks, while there are media trials, and many more.

Still we do not have courage to protest and we are approaching them for friendly relations.

G.H.VAJID
Karachi