Islamabad, October 06: Misbah-ul-Haq is one of thousands of Pakistani students who managed to get admission to British universities to pursue their post-graduate studies.
He applied for the visa four months before beginning of his academic year and was supposed to attend the ongoing fall semester.
His dreams have been dashed because his visa application has been pending with the British High Commission in Islamabad for months.
“I kept expecting a call from the High Commission people till a week before the beginning of fall semester,” he told.
“But till now, I have no idea when I will be granted visa.”
Many Pakistani students believe they are the victims of an unofficial ban on visa for Britain.
The British High Commission in Islamabad has been holding 200,000 passports following a recently adopted security mechanism, reportedly meant for Pakistanis only.
Some 2000 passports are being added to the current number every week, with very little hope that the backlog will be cleared off in the near future.
“I know at least five students from my own university who have secured positions in their respective departments, but they too are waiting for the High Commission’s reply like me,” said Misbah-ul-Haq.
“I am not sure whether I will be granted visa or not, but for sure, I am going to miss at least one precious academic year.”
Diplomatic Row
The problem is made worse by the fact that under the new security mechanism, the British High Commission retains the applicants’ passports for the entire duration of the process no matter how long it takes.
“I am totally puzzled. My parents and friends keep asking me to get admission to either a university in another country or a local one,” said Misbah-ul-Haq.
“But the problem is that my passport is with the British authorities and I can’t apply for another country’s visa until I get it back.”
The Foreign Ministry acknowledges the visa problem.
“This is unfortunate that on the one hand you say we are strategic partners, while on the other hands you are treating us with exceptions whereby inordinate delays are being made in visa processing for our students in the name of mechanism,” Abdul Basit, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told.
“We are not against security mechanism. There must be a proper security mechanism, but not at a cost were people suffer for no good reason.”
The issue has created a diplomatic row between Pakistan and Britain, prompting British Home Secretary Alan Johnson to fly to Islamabad to address the issue.
“We have communicated our view to Mr Johnson that the mechanism they have evolved has been creating a lot of problems for Pakistanis, especially our students, who are being deprived of higher education for no good reason,” said Abdul Basit.
The British official has met with Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmud Qureshi and other officials to ease the growing diplomatic tension.
“The Prime Minister too has forcefully told Mr Johnson that such a situation is not acceptable whereby our people are being exceptionally penalized,” said Basit.
“And he (Mr Johnson) too recognizes this.”
Basit says the British Home Minister has assured the prime minister that he would personally work to remove such bottlenecks vis-à-vis visa processing for Pakistani students.
-Agencies