India denies visa to Pakistani woman seeking cancer treatment, cites border tensions

Islamabad: A 25-year-old Pakistani woman suffering from cancer has been caught in the India-Pakistan rivalry as her medical visa application has been rejected by the Indian embassy in Islamabad, according to a media report on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_3789437” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative image. PTI[/caption] Faiza Tanveer suffers from a recurrent ameloblastoma, a cancerous oral tumour which is aggressive in nature. She planned to visit the Inderprastha Dental College and Hospital (IDCH) in Ghaziabad and had already paid Rs 1 million in advance for treatment, Dawn reported. But the Indian High Commission rejected her medical visa application, citing deteriorating ties between the countries as the reason for refusal, according to her mother Parveen Akhtar. Akhtar said the embassy officials told her that it was possible she may be able to get a medical visa if the Pakistan’s foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz wrote to India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj on the matter. She urged politicians in both the countries to help facilitate her daughter’s visa application. The Ghaziabad hospital had invited Tanveer and her mother for treatment and they had requested a 20-day medical visa. Akhtar said they were told by local medical professionals that chemotherapy would be challenging as the target area is a particularly sensitive one given the proximity to her ears, nose and eyes. They were told that the Jinnah Hospital would be able to perform chemotherapy, but Tanveer’s eyeball would need to be removed for the process, which Tanveer and her mother were unwilling to opt for. Treatment in India is cheaper than in the US or Singapore, Akhtar said. IDCH had quoted the cost of treatment to about USD 20,000, according to the report.