Swaraj announces visa for Pak woman for treatment of kidney ailment

Team Udayavani, Oct 12, 2017, 11:31 AM IST

New Delhi:  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today said the government will issue visa to a Pakistani woman who requires medical treatment in India for her kidney ailments. Swaraj’s intervention came after the husband of the woman — Neelma Ghaffar — requested the external affairs minister to grant her visa.

“We are giving visa for her treatment in India,” Swaraj tweeted along with a photograph of the Pakistani woman. Earlier, in a tweet to Swaraj, Ghaffar Khan, Neelma’s husband, had said that his wife was in a critical condition ans required urgent medical treatment in India.

“@SushmaSwaraj respected madam, we are in hospital now. My wife Neelma Ghaffar is on last stage. Pleases save my family and grant visa,” Khan had tweeted. Swaraj has been sympathetically considering medical visa applications from scores of Pakistani nationals notwithstanding strain in the relationship between the two countries over a host of issues, including cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

Yesterday, Swaraj had said the government would issue medical visa to a one-year old Pakistani girl for open-heart surgery in India. On Monday, she had come to the aid of a sick Pakistani national by announcing to grant him medical visa for his liver transplant surgery in India.