Have passport, can’t travel

File photo of Pakistani Passport.

We did not really need Henley and Partners to tell us that travel on a Pakistani visa was not easy. Some of us who have faced the visa process at embassies, or encountered the look on immigration officers at international airports as the document is presented to them, can testify to this. Nevertheless, the 2013 Visa Restrictions Index put together by the company puts before us in stark black and white just what the travel problems are.

On the index, Pakistan finishes low down the order — indeed very low down the order — on the list of nations ranked for travel freedoms on the basis of visa-free access to other countries. Pakistan, tied with Somalia at 92^nd place, has access without a visa to only 32 countries. This can be compared with the 173 countries those holding Finnish, Swedish or British visas can enter. Only Iraq and Afghanistan, which finishes last on the list, rank behind Pakistan.

The issue, of course, brings us to all kinds of other matters. Over the years, notably over the last two decades or so, as the Pakistani passport has become less and less respected, all kinds of problems have arisen for students, business travellers and others. Students holding admissions to universities have in some cases been unable to attend courses since visas have been refused. The hindrances affect people everywhere. In some cases, of course, sheer bias is involved in the refusal to grant visas.

But if we consider matters objectively, the problem also lies with us. The image of Pakistan as a global epicentre of terrorism means each and every one of us holding that green passport embossed with the national emblem is looked upon with suspicion. This, of course, is unfair; but it has also become a reality of life: one that we need to adjust by reviewing what has happened to us as a nation and understanding that the issue of militancy affects us in many different ways. This makes it all the more imperative that we address the core matter of militancy as urgently as possible and try to resurrect ourselves as a respectable nation.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2013.