Page 14 - Willy Blaser - ein Traum geht nun doch in Erfüllung

permit, which I have already been granted. Non-Thai foreigners can get a Pakistani visa only if
they are permanent residents in Thailand or have a work permit. Further, a recommendation
from Pakistan’s interior ministry is also required. The ministry, however, is refusing to issue
any letter to me. Because of all this I had to cancel my trekking trip. I want to apologise to all
the guides, drivers, cooks and porters who could have had some income coming their way

through my trekking trip. The tourism and hotel industry in Pakistan is already suffering
because of the fear of terrorism that is keeping many Western tourists at home. This tourist
visa policy will do nothing to improve the situation. I am writing to let the Pakistani people
judge for themselves the practice employed by their embassy in Bangkok.

Willy Blaser

Leserbrief Reaktionen - Comments from readers

Leserbriefe haben es in sich, dass sie möglichst kurz sein müssen, ansonsten sie nicht
publiziert werden. Aus meinem Leserbrief geht leider nicht hervor, dass ich als
Auslandschweizer (ohne Wohnsitz in der Schweiz) seit zwölf Jahren als Tourist in Südostasien
lebe. Dieser äusserst wichtige Hinweis fehlt leider, was wohl dazu führte, dass die Leser den
Grund meines Unbehagens nicht begreifen konnten.

Letters to editors having to be as short as possible, I failed to mention that I’m an Expat
(without a residence in Switzerland) living with the status of tourist for twelve years in
Southeast Asia. This very important information about my status is unfortunately missing,
reason why the readers could not understand the reason of my discomfort.

Sherlock Holmes
Tit for tap policy employed by Pakistan. No country in the world is issuing a visa to a Pakistani,
for various reasons, mainly because of issues related to terrorism. So Pakistan is well within its
rights to decline visa to the citizens of other countries. Only irony here is that nobody is willing
to come to Pakistan unless it is unavoidable.

Nadir
To be fair, to apply for a visa, you need to be in most cases in your country of residence. No
Pakistani is given the luxury of appealing to anyone. Your emotional blackmail quoting the
porters etc who would loose income is in really poor state. Though personally, I wouldnt have
such stringent visa regulations, but these regulations are based on reciprocity, just a taste of
how Pakistanis are treated, with no luxury of writing letters to the editor, hoping to shape
policy.

Amjad