India has always welcomed Pakistani nationals in need of medical aid. It shows a large heart
India's grant of medical visa to a two-and-a-half-month-old baby from Pakistan who was suffering from heart disease, is but just one example of the humanitarian help that it has been granting to its neighbour and to other countries too. The surgery has been successful and the infant's family members have returned to their home state after having profusely thanked Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj. There can be no denial of the fact that despite deep differences between both countries over various issues, India has time and again showed its humanitarian side to Pakistan. The icing on the cake is that such compassionate attitude has come amidst a hostile climate that has strained bilateral ties between them. There have been skirmishes along the line of Control; the Kulbhushan Jadhav episode where a Pakistani military court sentenced him to death on espionage charges; violence in Kashmir, terror attacks on Indian soil, which everyone knows is the handiwork of Pakistan-supported elements. All of this has happened against the backdrop of indiscriminate firing across the line of Control where several schools have been attacked and soldiers have been killed. But what is heartening is that despite differences, not only the Government but also doctors and families have forever been welcoming Pakistani nationals who have constantly looked to India for medical help. In yet another recent case, where a Pakistani national, Ken Sid, made a desperate appeal to Swaraj on social media to allow his son Roohan to be treated in India for heart ailment, Indians turned out to be the greatest supporters of his tweets. and these are not standalone cases. There are numerous instances where nationals from Pakistan have sought Indian help for medical treatment and India has welcomed them with open arms. In 2003, an open-heart surgery was conducted on Noor Fatima, who came to India for treatment for a cardiac disorder. In 2015, five-year-old Basma was granted a visa to come to India for an emergency liver transplant surgery. It has also been reported that Indian hospitals receive around 500 patients from Pakistan every month.
However, Swaraj did not miss to make a political point. In another case, while responding to a plea by a man from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Osama Ali, who appealed to the Minister to allow him to visit India, Swaraj made it clear that India would give visa to Pakistan nationals only on the recommendations of the de facto Foreign Minister in Pakistan, Sartaj Aziz. She did not mince words in stating that since PoK was part of India, patients coming from that region need not have recommendations; they can directly apply for a visa and they don't need clearance from the regime in Pakistan. On the one hand, there is a country, India, that has forever been showing concern to its neighbour’s people despite the tense relations. On the other, Pakistan has constantly denied visa to Jadhav’s mother who wants to visit her son. leave along granting the visa, the least that Islamabad could have done was to respond to the personal letter sent by Swaraj to Aziz. But Islamabad did not even bother to acknowledged the letter.