When Osgoode Hall Student Hassan Ahmed received a prestigious fellowship to work in New Dehli this summer for the Human Rights Law Network, the U of T alumnus never expected the great lengths that he would have to go to get a visa.
“It was at the point that everything was done except the visa,” he says.
When Ahmed went to the Indian Consulate’s main office in North Toronto he was told, after an hour of waiting, that his application could not be processed. The Indian Government had implemented a new policy in March stating that those of Pakistani origin would have to wait at least a month and a half to have their application processed.
According to Indian consul M.P. Singh, this rule applies to all people of Pakistani origin, regardless of whether they have ever been to the country itself.
Ahmed was born and raised in Canada. He holds a Master’s in Economics from UofT and is a first year law student at Osgoode Hall. His parents emigrated from Pakistan in the late 1970s. They have never returned to visit.
Despite the policy, Ahmed continued all attempts to expedite the process for a month, hoping to convince upper echelon Consuls to grant him a visa before May 7, his date of departure.
“I called my sister and my brother-in-law, who happen to rent two of their condominiums to Indian consulate members. In the past, issues getting visas were usually dealt with by talking to our connections and then it would no longer be a problem.”
His sister’s efforts were also futile.
Meanwhile, Rachel White, a fellow classmate of Ahmed’s with the same placement in New Dehli received her visa in two days.
The estimated waiting time give to Ahmed also varied from between one and three months. The consulate website is vague on the matter, stating “it can take several months before a decision can be conveyed on visa requests by Pakistani nationals and persons of Pakistani origin.”
The details of the policy have not been published and was communicated to Ahmed only verbally by consulate members.
The Varsity contacted consul M.P. Singh to elaborate the basis of the policy but he did not reply with comment.
“Their hands are tied too,” says Ahmed in reference to the consulate, “if they could help us they would, they’ve done it before.”
Since the policy was enacted in India, it is a matter that Ahmed would have had to take up with the Indian government. Since the 2008 attacks in Mumbai by Pakistani nationals, relations between India and Pakistan have been terse.
Unable to go to India, Ahmed found another placement in South Africa to research HIV Law.
According to Bruce Ryder, a professor of constitutional law at Osgoode Hall, the policy is clearly discriminatory as defined in the Canadian legal system. Ryder and other legal experts advised Ahmed to file a claim upon his return.
“The policy is insane and I don’t know what it is based on,” says Ahmed. “I’ve had no issue of racism in Canada, but the fact that I was discriminated against by Indians was shocking to me.”
