I RECENTLY got admission to the South Asian University (SAU) in New Delhi. On June 6, I visited the Indian high commission in Islamabad to submit my student visa application. However, I was informed that the high commission does not accept student visa applications directly. Following their instructions, I visited the official visa processing facility in Islamabad. Unfortunately, I was told that they were unable to process the visa application as per the instructions from the Indian high commission. For me, it is the dead end.

The university was established by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) in 1985 to promote economic and regional integration. Located in New Delhi, the university, at least on paper, aims at fostering cooperation and building a knowledge base. It offers postgraduate and doctoral programmes across various disciplines to students from all the Saarc countries. Each Saarc member plays a role in the governance of the SAU through representation in its governing bodies, contributing to its budget, and each country has reserved seats in every programme. The budget for SAU is shared by all the member countries.

For the last several years, students from Pakistan have not been able to join any SAU programme due to visa issues. It would facilitate Pakistani students if the representatives of Pakistan at Saarc get the visa issue resolved. Otherwise, sharing the budget is just a burden on the country. All the stakeholders need to resolve this issue.

Tahir Raza
Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2024