Here, getting visa is easier than permit 
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Poonch, November 19
As all major political parties claim to reunite the divided families and has made it a major issue in the elections here, there have been several cases where people after waiting for travel permits had applied for a visa and even returned, but were yet to get the permits.
Nargis Khatoon Rizvi, wife of Haidar Sheikh of Mandi, applied for a permit in 2005 to travel through the Uri-Muzaffarabad road to meet her cousin, Murtaza Hussain Rizvi, who went to live in the Baag tehsil of PoK in 1965. After waiting for the travel permit for more than six months, she applied for a visa in March, 2006, and got it
within a month.
“After getting the visa, my mother crossed over to Pakistan through the Wagah border on April 13, 2006, and after staying there for about five months, she returned”, her son, Syed Zaffar Yaseen, said.
“She again applied for a visa in September, 2008, and got it within 10 days. She crossed to Pakistan through the Wagah border on October 12. Even as she has travelled to Pakistan twice on a visa, she is yet to get the permits she had applied for. This speaks volumes for the problems in getting a travel permit”, he added.
This case indicates that though political parties may claim uniting the divided families by “pushing” the government to make travel procedures on permit through cross the LoC easier, but getting a permit is still the most difficult thing.
In fact, a large number of people who have their relatives across the border, after the roads between the two countries were opened, were hoping that permits will make their travel to PoK much easier, but that never proved to be the case.
A few of them who kept on waiting for months together for travel permits have finally applied for Visa. They, after getting the Visa, crossed over to PoK and have returned, but were yet to get the travel permits.
Sources reveal that getting permission for travelling across through the opened border points is not an easy task as it involves innumerable verifications done by both Indian and Pakistani agencies. Poonch and Mendhar Assembly constituency in this frontier district have highest number of divided families in the state.