Recently an international education conference was held in Montreal, Canada. There was a contingent of 10 odd people, a mix of academics, education sector civil society members, activists, government officials working on education, and a couple of people working for international NGOs who were going to attend this conference from Pakistan.
All of the people had invitation letters from the conference organisers, proof of their jobs and occupations in Pakistan, letters stating their expenses for the stay were covered and these were submitted with the applications to the Canadian High Commission in Pakistan. Most of the applications were submitted well in time. One person applied 3 months in advance.
The conference is gone. Pakistani representation at the conference was very weak this year. But I am told Pakistan was not the only country that was treated this way. A lot of participants coming from some African and Muslim countries were also not able to make it.
But it is more the High Commission in Pakistan that has to do some thinking. Their typical response is that they have too many applications and processing times are too long. But the usual reasons aside, if the High Commission was serious it could announce that processing can take up to 6 months (or whatever is the expected time) so that people can plan accordingly. In this case this conference schedule was announced a year in advance: people could have applied a lot earlier.
Clearly it is not just a processing time issue. It seems our allies in the war on terror have problems allowing people from Pakistan and some other countries coming to visit them.
Those who submitted their applications had paid the visa application fee and also registered for the conference, both non-refundable, and these fees are not a trivial amount anymore.
Interestingly, all of the people who had applied from Pakistan were ones who travel regularly to the West, attend conferences and seminars, many were educated in the West, and have colleagues, co-authors in the West.
It is too much to hope that the High Commission will do anything about this. I know security, national interest and all that. But I can also say this is no way to make friends either.
DR FAISAL BARI
Lahore