Bang Galore
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Pak Christians can get long-term visas
PANAJI: Following a request from the office of the commissioner for NRI affairs in Goa, the Union home ministry has included Christians and Buddhists in the list of minority communities in Pakistan eligible for long-term Indian visas with the ultimate intention of granting them Indian citizenship. Earlier, the list was limited to Hindus and Sikhs.
Sources in Delhi told TOI that an order to this effect was issued by the home ministry on August 11.
Goa commissioner for NRI affairs Eduardo Faleiro's request to include Christians in the list follows pleas from a number of Pakistani nationals of Goan origin who want to return to and settle down in Goa and acquire Indian citizenship.
Before Goa's liberation in 1961, Goans would go to Karachi for work, it being easier to go there than to Mumbai as there was a direct flight from Goa to Pakistan. The children of many such Goans were born there and therefore became Pakistani nationals.
Long after the need for jobs in Pakistan disappeared and many Goan-Pakistanis migrated to the west, there are quite a number who wish to return to their roots.
Sources in the NRI affairs commission recounted one such case. A lady with roots in Bastora lost her husband in Pakistan and returned to Goa. The NRI commission took up the matter with the Union home ministry and got her visa extended and after seven years, the lady got Indian citizenship.
Sources said that the grant of visa to Pak nationals visiting India is governed by the Indo-Pak visa agreement 1974, which provides for the issue of only short-term visas. Instructions have been issued in the past regarding the grant of long-term visas to a category of Pakistani nationals to enable them to qualify for Indian citizenship.
Since this category included Hindus and Sikhs, Christians of Goan origin were denied the privilege of being eligible for long-term Indian visas.
Faleiro's letter to the Union home ministry apprised the Centre that at the time of an undivided India, many Goans, especially Christians, migrated to Karachi and elsewhere in present-day Pakistan.
"Christians constitute a significant minority community in Pakistan. The minister for minority communities who was recently assassinated in Islamabad was himself a Christian. May I request you to kindly include Christians in addition to Hindus and Sikhs as members of the minority communities in Pakistan for the purpose of long-term visa so as to enable them to qualify for Indian citizenship. This will greatly help Goan Christians who are Pakistan nationals and who have been in Goa before December 31, 2009, to qualify for Indian citizenship," Faleiro's letter had said.
Pak Christians can get long-term visas - The Times of India
PANAJI: Following a request from the office of the commissioner for NRI affairs in Goa, the Union home ministry has included Christians and Buddhists in the list of minority communities in Pakistan eligible for long-term Indian visas with the ultimate intention of granting them Indian citizenship. Earlier, the list was limited to Hindus and Sikhs.
Sources in Delhi told TOI that an order to this effect was issued by the home ministry on August 11.
Goa commissioner for NRI affairs Eduardo Faleiro's request to include Christians in the list follows pleas from a number of Pakistani nationals of Goan origin who want to return to and settle down in Goa and acquire Indian citizenship.
Before Goa's liberation in 1961, Goans would go to Karachi for work, it being easier to go there than to Mumbai as there was a direct flight from Goa to Pakistan. The children of many such Goans were born there and therefore became Pakistani nationals.
Long after the need for jobs in Pakistan disappeared and many Goan-Pakistanis migrated to the west, there are quite a number who wish to return to their roots.
Sources in the NRI affairs commission recounted one such case. A lady with roots in Bastora lost her husband in Pakistan and returned to Goa. The NRI commission took up the matter with the Union home ministry and got her visa extended and after seven years, the lady got Indian citizenship.
Sources said that the grant of visa to Pak nationals visiting India is governed by the Indo-Pak visa agreement 1974, which provides for the issue of only short-term visas. Instructions have been issued in the past regarding the grant of long-term visas to a category of Pakistani nationals to enable them to qualify for Indian citizenship.
Since this category included Hindus and Sikhs, Christians of Goan origin were denied the privilege of being eligible for long-term Indian visas.
Faleiro's letter to the Union home ministry apprised the Centre that at the time of an undivided India, many Goans, especially Christians, migrated to Karachi and elsewhere in present-day Pakistan.
"Christians constitute a significant minority community in Pakistan. The minister for minority communities who was recently assassinated in Islamabad was himself a Christian. May I request you to kindly include Christians in addition to Hindus and Sikhs as members of the minority communities in Pakistan for the purpose of long-term visa so as to enable them to qualify for Indian citizenship. This will greatly help Goan Christians who are Pakistan nationals and who have been in Goa before December 31, 2009, to qualify for Indian citizenship," Faleiro's letter had said.
Pak Christians can get long-term visas - The Times of India
..No worries many more servicemen who are Christian will bomb India one day.
