BY BEENA SARWAR
Anis Haroon, the well-known women’s rights and peace
activist, relates a story about the time she visited Bangalore, India, in
1989 to attend a South Asian women’s conference. She was among the three
Pakistani participants but the only one to have a ‘police-reporting visa’.
This led to a memorable incident at the local police station, at a time
when few Pakistanis were able to visit India and vice versa…
Pakistan-India relations had for years been marked by
acrimony and tension at the best of times, punctuated by outright war at
others, the most bitter of which was still a not too distant memory –
1971, when Bangladesh won its liberation from Pakistan with India’s help.
But by 1989 there was a different atmosphere. The cold war was over. So
was the Afghan war. Those were the heady days of the ‘restoration of
democracy’ in Pakistan. Gone was Gen Zia-ul-Haq who had taken Pakistan in
an altogether different direction than envisaged by earlier leaders. Gone
were Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Indira Gandhi and their tense competitive
relationship, particularly since 1971. A cautious thaw in Pakistan-India
relations was discernible with the new generation of leadership symbolised
by Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Gandhi, both of whom had recently come into
power in their countries, holding out the promise of participatory
democracy and better neighbourly relations.
But all the years of a lack of contact between Indians and
Pakistanis had made the people of either country almost an alien species
to each other – and it took a grumpy subinspector to bring home the
ridiculousness of this enforced separation, when visas were difficult to
obtain – and then only for those visiting relatives across the border. The
eighties saw the formation of the South Asia Association for Regional
Cooperation in 1984 and the rise of the NGOs. Many individuals and NGOs
began to form regional alliances to discuss issues of mutual concern – the
earliest such meetings were focused on safe ‘non-political’ issues like
environment and women’s rights, and played a crucial role in bringing
people together on these platforms, particularly Indians and Pakistanis.
It was in this context that Anis Haroon, in India to
attend one of the first of such regional meetings, found herself outside a
police station at the remote suburb of White Plains in Bangalore, armed
with her ‘police-reporting’ visa and accompanied by a conference
volunteer.
South India is another country for many North Indians and
Pakistanis. The only common language is English and some Hindustani. The
following conversation took place in a mixture of both, with some
frustrated exclamations in mutually incomprehensible Urdu and Kannada
escaping the protagonists from time to time.
"Hello, I’m a Pakistani," Anis announced, waving her green
passport at the drowsy subinspector inside the police station.
Grunt. "So?"
"I’ve come to report," she persisted.
The policeman finally looked up, displeased at being
disturbed. "Report what?"
"I have to report my arrival."
"Why?"
Nonplussed silence, then: "...Because I was told I must."
He seemed more alert suddenly. "Are you here illegally?"
"No."
"Have you lost your passport?"
"No..."
"Your ticket then?" Inspector a bit irritable by now.
"No but..."
"Have you lost your luggage? Has someone misbehaved with
you?"
"No, no, no." Anis also somewhat irritated.
"Then WHAT are you reporting? Go away and stop wasting my
time!"
With this bit of irrefutable logic, the man flapped Anis
and her companion out of the police station and returned to his snooze.
Perturbed at not having the precious stamp attesting to
her legal sojourn in India, they reluctantly began to turn back when the
station house officer put-putted up on his motorbike. A superior officer!
He would understand the complexities of Pakistan-India relationships and
legal requirements! The two women explained the situation and the SHO went
inside to confront his recalcitrant junior. After five minutes of loud
arguments in Kannada, the visibly annoyed subinspector beckoned in the
source of annoyance, who returned inside meekly to present her passport to
him.
Grumbling loudly in Kannada, he scribbled something on the
police reporting form, and gave back her green passport (thankfully duly
stamped) and gestured her away. Safely outside, Anis Haroon looked at what
he had written: "A Pakistani has come to this police station to report.
But she has nooooothing to report."
Thankful to at least have the precious stamp attesting
that she had ‘done the needful’, Anis returned to the conference where she
recounted the story.
Later, Shoaib and Salima Hashmi made a skit out of it,
which they played out in front of Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto – both
reportedly laughed a great deal at the ridiculousness of the situation,
which was actually a true story. But their personal response to the story
notwithstanding, neither was able to do away with the visa requirement
that Pakistanis and Indians visiting each other’s countries must report to
the police within 24 hours of arrival and departure (although this
condition is occasionally waived).
A child of 15 or a grandmother of 70 – unless they have
the connections to obtain a waiver, all Indians and Pakistanis visiting
each other’s country must present themselves to the police after arrival
and then before departure. The logic of this requirement defies all
reason.
The subinspector in Bangalore in 1989 hadn’t caught on yet
because there were, at that point, so few visitors from Pakistan, but the
only beneficiaries of this archaic and discriminatory requirement are the
police, who make a nice extra packet every month by facilitating such
reports.
As Dr Mubashir Hasan (founding member of the Pakistan
Human Rights Commission) notes, even when the rulers try to end this
requirement, the bureaucracy stands in their way – he cites the specific
example of Nawaz Sharif and Vajpayee during that historic bus trip in 1999
when the senior civil servants in attendance shot down this proposal made
by the two prime ministers during their meeting.
With the composite dialogue dragging on and on, showing no
results, surely this is something both governments can agree on –
something that a grumpy police officer in Bangalore recognised years ago –
that Pakistanis and Indians legally visiting each other’s countries have
nothing to report.