6 years on, Laila Beevi still denied visa

Alappuzha: The story of Haneef Maranveetil and his wife Aseena from Kannur, who are stuck in Karachi for the last six years due to visa problems, is not an exception.

Kerala-born Paisthani Laila Beevi, who is settled in Lahore, has also been trying hard for a visa to visit her native place for the last six years, but in vain.

Laila of  Kizhikulathu Tharayil, XII ward of Haripad panchayat, Kumarapuram here, was married to her Pakistani cousin Abdul Azeez, a taxi driver in Lahore, 33 years ago.

Laila, mother of four, visited her home three or four times after receiving Pakistan citizenship in 1985. 

She last visited her native place in 2007, three years before her mother Rehiyanath, 80, passed away.   

At that time, the Pakistan government denied Laila’s family a visa to attend her funeral. Her father Abubacker too died in 2000 without seeing his daughter. 

Shamsudheen, her uncle, told Deccan Chronicle that he had approached the authorities several times to clear the hurdles in her visa and submitted a complaint to Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation K.C. Venugopal three months ago, but no reply has been received.

Shamsudheen says, “when she contacted us six months ago, she told us she was not well because of hypertension and diabetes. She needed a clearance certificate from  the Indian External Affairs Ministry.  We are trying hard to get the papers,” he laments.       

“Laila and her family have no permanent home in Pakistan as yet,” says her cousin Hussain, a shop owner in Haripad.

“They were staying in  a rented house for the last three decades. Our family members were unaware of the consequences of such a marriage. Laila had approached Pakistan Interior Ministry twice  for special permission to visit India. But they demanded a clearance certificate from the Indian ministry. But we couldn’t get it though she had submitted relevant documents to the Indian High Commission,”  he says.