A six-year-old Pakistani girl has been given a visa for medical treatment in India and thanks to the cricketer-turned-politician and BJP MP Gautam Gambhir for helping the girl at the right time.
In a written letter to Gautam Gambhir, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar communicated the government’s decision to allow medical visas to Omaima Ali and her parents on the lawmaker’s request.
Gautam Gambhir had written to the External Affairs Ministry for medical visas to the Pakistani nationals on October 1.
“उस पार से एक नन्हे दिल ने दस्तक दी, इस पार दिल ने सब सरहदें मिटा दी। उन नन्हे कदमों के साथ बहतीहुई मीठी हवा भी आई है, कभी-कभी ऐसा भी लगता है जैसे बेटी घर आई है। Thank u @DrSJaishankar 4 granting visa to Pakistani girl& her parents for her heart surgery @narendramodi @AmitShah,” Gambhir’s post read on Twitter.
“I have asked our High Commission in Islamabad to issue appropriate visas to Omaima Ali and her parents,” Jaishankar mentioned in a letter to Gambhir.
Speaking to news agency ANI here, Gambhir said he had received a phone call from Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Yousuf requesting a visa for the little girl who had previously undergone treatment at a hospital in Noida and that she needed open-heart surgery.
“Yousuf said the girl had undergone treatment at hospital in Noida and she required open-heart surgery. So she desperately needed a visa because as she needed to undergo the surgery as soon as possible,” Gambhir was quoted as saying by ANI.
“I am really thankful that he accepted the request and granted the visa. She is going to cross the Attari border by road,” he said.
Gambhir echoed that he had a problem with the government, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and terror outfits in Pakistan but ‘had no grudge’ with the people of Pakistan.
“If a six-year-old girl can get treatment in India, what better than this can happen?” he said.
(With inputs from ANI)