Pak discourtesy
By Vaidehi Nathan
While India opens her borders with Pakistan and bends backwards to send aid to that country, the Pakistani authorities do not miss a chance to humiliate and ill-treat visitors from India to that country. The latest victim of this is P. K. Banerjee, team manager of the Indian football team. According to a report in the Hindustan Times, Banerjee was ?thrown out? of the Karachi airport, after he had been issued the boarding card, on December 18, 2005.
According to the report, Banerjee was told at the Karachi airport immigration section that his visa needed him to report at the police station. When he showed the officer the Gold Medal the Pakistani Prime Minister had given at the South Asia Football Federation Games, the officer told him to ?just get out.?
The All India Football Federation President and Union Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi promised to take up the matter with the Pakistani authorities. According to Banerjee, the rude behaviour of the Pakistani official was ?something he had never faced in his life.?
If Pakistan cannot even show the common courtesy to be shown to a visitor to the country, where is the talk of deepening relations? Contrast this with the warm and happy welcome given to ordinary Pakistanis who came to India to see the India-Pakistan cricket matches.
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