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blacklist, boundaries, citizen, country, cycle, geographical, geography, heart, pakistan, random, random writing, sentiments, spouses, terror, terrorism, UK, usa, visa, visas, writing
I am a citizen of Pakistan, a country which has been, needless to say, blacklisted by many others. And why wouldn’t it be, when terror attacks anywhere in the world somehow – miraculously – manage to incriminate a ‘Pakistani’ in them. But even if we look at it on a nationwide level, the country is the victim of ‘acts of terrorism’ by its own citizens – apparently; events that are covered by the media worldwide. In the face of such barbarity, it makes sense for Pakistanis to not be given visas to travel to a lot of countries.
However, is there any way to justify this?
Because we live in a blacklisted country, it may be quite difficult for us to travel to a lot of places. The growing trend in Pakistan involves many people having at least one (in a lot of cases, more) relative out of the country, mostly in places like the US and UK. While modern technology provides us with some very good ways of keeping in touch with our loved ones (exhibit A: Skype), what does one do when we want to meet them? How do you go meet people when citizens of your country are mostly denied visas?
Yet another rising trend in Pakistan is the marriages of girls to boys living abroad. While the men have visas or even international passports, it sometimes takes their spouses well over a year to reach their preferred destination. The catch here? You belong to Pakistan.
The distinctions of land allotments for various countries stand in the way of people being able to meet their loved ones as often as they’d like. Countries need to relax their laws to allow people the ease to travel. If people want to be together, things such as visas should not be the deciding factor – especially when the deciding factor is in the hands of a third party that does not share, or even care for your sentiments. It is particularly irksome that geographical boundaries come into play even when boundaries of the heart disappear.
But then, I am a citizen of Pakistan…
The cycles continues.
