Qadian (Amritsar), October 30
Tahira, a Pakistani national, was lucky to get marriage visa by the Indian High Commission. However, Nasir Parwin Hai (21), a resident of Qadian, has been running from pillar to post to get a similar treatment from the Pakistani Embassy even after two years of her nikah with a Pakistani boy.
Hai was married to her first cousin Mohammad Ahsan, a resident of Rabwah in Jhang district of Pakistan, when she visited Pakistan much before the attack on Indian Parliament. Mr Sheikh Abdul Qadeer, the father of the girl, said the family could not break the marriage despite the fact that visa was not being granted to her. Mr Qadeer said he had already married his elder daughter in Pakistan about 15 years ago. Mr Qadeer said he had stayed back in India to preserve the legacy of Ahmadiyya Muslims at the time of Partition. Most of his relatives were living in Pakistan, he added.
Hai’s case is not an isolated one. Many men and women of India and Pakistan have been waiting for their marriage to take place, thanks to visa hassles. Mr Manzoor Ahmad Cheema, another resident of Qadian, said his son Faqar Ahmed was engaged with a Pakistani national about two years ago. However, despite sustained efforts made by the family, visa was not granted.
Interestingly, Mirza Wasim Ahmed, the chief secretary of Sadr-Anjuman-Ahmadiyya, had to get visa from Dubai to attend the marriage of his granddaughter in Rabwah after a lot of efforts. Residents of Qadian have been facing problems in meeting their relatives in Pakistan and vice-versa.
Mr Burhan Ahmad Zafar, the secretary for publications of Sadr-Anjuman-Ahmadiyya, told TNS that almost 90 per cent relatives of the residents of Qadian lived in Pakistan. However, Qadian Muslims from both countries have been facing problems in getting visas. Mr Syed Tanwir Ahad, the president of the press committee of the Ahmadiyya Jamait, said both India and Pakistan should encourage people-to-people contact for a thaw in the region.
Meanwhile, the residents of Qadian are happy to receive Tahira, a resident of Pakistan, who will marry her first cousin, Maqbool, a local journalist, on November 7.
