Senate vs the US

While the Trump administration is facing a difficult time in the courts over its recent travel bans, it has not changed how the US Immigrations Office operates. Since 9/11, Pakistani citizens have continued to face extra scrutiny when applying for visas, resulting in unexplained delays and visa refusals. Our various governments have paid little heed to the issue, despite the fact that Pakistan has been a key US ally in the region. While ordinary Pakistanis have continued to suffer the quirks and biases of the US visa system, the US has largely spared Pakistani dignitaries the embarrassment of a US visa rejection – until now. On Saturday, it emerged that the US had failed to issue a visa to Senate Deputy Chairman Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri. Senator Haideri, a member of the JUI-F, was scheduled to represent Pakistan at the UN-sponsored International Parliamentary Union in New York on February 13-14. As a representative of Pakistan’s legislature, there should have been no reason to reject the visa application for Senator Haideri without explanation. But such is the nature of the current US setup that the visa application for the deputy chairman of the Pakistani Senate was not considered worth responding to in time for the official visit.

The Senate has not taken the matter standing down. Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani has announced a boycott of the UN-sponsored panel – for which another Senator Salahuddin Tirmizi had been issued a visa in time. The word from the US embassy was that the deputy chairman’s visa application would be responded to on February 14, which essentially meant he could not attend the forum. Rabbani has also stated that there will be no further Senate delegations to the US nor will the Senate receive a US delegation unless an explanation for the delay is provided. With no explanation provided by the US embassy, it is not worth speculating whether Senator Haideri’s visa has been delayed due to his political affiliations. But it does speak to the broader sense of impunity that has been affiliated with the US visa regime. Rabbani is correct in taking such a strong stand since every country has the right to send delegations to the UN, which is technically, like any embassy, not US territory. Even then, for the US to slow-walk issuing visas to officials of what is ostensibly an allied country is unacceptable. This will do grave damage to US diplomacy in Pakistan and shows that Trump’s Islamophobia and talk of a Muslim ban was not just campaign theatrics. One would also hope that the Senate’s decision to take on the US visa regime does not remain limited to the deputy chairman. As the representative of the people, the government should be equally vigilant when it is Pakistani students, tourists and businesspersons – and not just senators – who are the target of US policies. The next four years are going to be a testing time for the Pakistan-US relationship and we need to look out for the interests of all Pakistanis rather than focusing all our energies on keeping the aid spigot turned on.