Shihab Chottur is on his way to Saudi Arabia and is waiting near the Wagah border to get his transit visa approved by Pakistan.
Published Dec 29, 2022 | 2:40 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 29, 2022 | 2:40 PM
Shihab Chottur. (Instagram)
M Zulqernain
The Lahore High Court’s decision to dismiss the plea by Shihab Chottur — a 29-year-old who hails from Malappuram district in Kerala — seeking a transit visa to enter the country so that he could complete a marathon journey on foot to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for Hajj pilgrimage, was challenged on Wednesday, 28 December, by a Pakistan national in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Sarwar Taj, the petitioner and a resident of Lahore, in his plea, argued that just as the Pakistan government issues visas to a number of Indian Sikhs during the birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak Dev and on other occasions and to Hindus to visit their holy places in the country, it should also give a visa to the Indian Muslim man, who is keen to reach Saudi Arabia by foot to perform Hajj pilgrimage.
Shihab Chottur set out on an 8,640 km journey on foot on 2 July from Athavanad in Malappuram’s Tirur taluk to Mecca to perform Haj in February 2023. He wanted to reach Mecca in Saudi Arabia after traversing India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait.
However, he was stopped by Pakistan’s immigration authorities at the Wagah border in October as he did not have a visa.
Shihab pleaded before the immigration authorities that he was going to perform Hajj on foot and since he had already travelled 3,000 km, he should be allowed to enter the country on humanitarian grounds. He wanted a transit visa to reach Saudi Arabia via Iran.
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Last month, the Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench comprising Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal and Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabbir dismissed the intra-court appeal filed by Taj on behalf of Shihab. The court observed that the “petitioner was not related to the Indian citizen, nor did he hold his power of attorney to approach the court.”
It also sought “complete particulars of the Indian citizen,” which the petitioner could not furnish.
Challenging the Lahore High Court’s decision in the apex court, the Pakistani citizen said that such matters should be decided on the basis of love and affection and not reasoning or codified law so as to meet with notions of equality and fair play.
“The LHC’s order is based on illegal assumptions and presumptions,” he said and added he is “neither a spy of India as a learned judge of LHC had tried to insinuate during the hearing nor a relative of Shihab.”
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