Pakistan’s travel embargo puts Afghan patients at risk

An Afghan family while registering at a repatriation center in Peshawar

Afghan boys selling parathas at their pushcart in Peshawar

• 10-day ban in place as part of security measures for Muharram
• Rights groups urge authorities to allow patients freedom of movement

PESHAWAR: Caught between a rock and a hard place, Muallim Khan, a resident of the Dakka area in Afghanistan, says that he can neither visit a hospital in the capital nor seek treatment in neighboring Pakistan.
This is because a notification issued by Peshawar earlier this week bars the entry of Afghan nationals into Pakistan during the first 10 days of Muharram. Around 3,000 Afghan nationals cross the border for reasons of employment and medical treatment every day – a number that will see a massive decline due to the new regulation.
At the receiving end are people like Khan, 55, who says that despite undergoing surgery in Peshawar, he has been unable to return for a checkup that’s long overdue. “The worst part is that we cannot even go to Kabul because the Afghan authorities have banned the entry of people from suburban areas due to strict security during this month [of Muharram],” he said.
Speaking to Arab News, S P Kaukab Farooq, superintendent of police in Peshawar, said that due to the sensitive situation “they (Afghan nationals) are not allowed to enter the city until Ashura (the 10th of Muharram)”.
Besides Peshawar, the districts of Kohat, Tank and D. I. Khan have been marked most sensitive due to their substantial Shiite population who are often targeted by extremist elements for their religious beliefs.
While the rules were much more lax earlier, officials said the Peshawar terror attack in December 2014 --- which killed 132 children from the Army Public School and which the military blamed the Taliban for – led to the tightening of security measures in the area, with passports now a must for entry into Pakistan. “Even if there is a patient to be brought to a hospital, the authorities demand to see their passport first,” Shamsul Islam, a Revenue Officer of the Landikotal subdivision, said.
Islam added that the permits are no longer issued at the border and instead need to be procured from the main cities in Afghanistan.
Ruing the changes in law which limited him from acquiring a passport on time, Wali Gul, a resident of the Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, said: “My 14-year-old daughter died from tuberculosis and liver dysfunction only because I was not granted permission to travel to a hospital in Peshawar. My family and I made repeated requests to the authorities at Torkham border to allow us to shift my daughter to a hospital in Peshawar but they demanded the patient’s passport first.”
Gul’s daughter died by the time he could make the necessary arrangements and finally cross the border. The aggrieved father urged authorities, on both sides of the border, to make temporary arrangements for patients with serious impediments so that they access medical attention on time.