Kassim Called Me

But I was surprised at the warmth and solicitousness of immigration at Karachi's Jinnah international airport. Indians are the last to get through simply because they have to fill in the 'C' form, a simple, cyclostyled sheet with half a dozen entries that has to be handed over within 24 hours to the police station nearest your hotel or place of stay. Probably because we were from India—and this encounter wasn't taking place at the LoC—immigration staff, surprisingly bereft of the coldness infecting similar officialdom the world over, explained everything we had to do very patiently and with smiles. I could swear these guys were my uncles.

The following day my friends, on my behalf, visited the police station (with four photographs) where they got the 'C' form exchanged for a residence certificate. You have to visit the police again and trade in the residence certificate for an exit pass one day before you leave the country. If you forget to do that, there are good chances you may be forced to stay on Pakistani soil far longer than you may desire.