Following the murder of a Pakistani national in Australia, members of the community have started an online petition urging the government to expedite visa process of his father.
Abdullah Siddiqi was allegedly killed last week in a Ballarat restaurant after an altercation with the cook, Hari Dhakal, a Nepalese national.
The accident shocked the Pakistani community living in Australia, which immediately called for appropriate legal action.
The community also extended its support to the family by spreading condolence messages on social media, asking members to attend the funeral scheduled for Tuesday (1st November).
However, the bereaved family's grief was only made more difficult when it emerged that his father couldn’t attend the funeral.
It is understood that his father has a medical condition and needs to undergo an examination before he could be granted an Australian visa.
“The problem with the medical examination is that we don’t have enough time,” said Mr Siddiqi’s cousin, Asim Siddiqui, who spoke to SBS Urdu after from flying from Riyadh to attend the funeral.
“To the decision makers – how would you feel if you were in the father’s position?”
“Abdullah's mother has been granted a visa but the high commission in Islamabad is holding back visa for Abdullah's grieving father,” the online petition said, urging Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to intervene.
The initial response to the petition was lacklustre but it later picked pace after his friends and other community members started signing and spreading it on different social media platforms.
There were messages of support as well as grief.
“To the decision makers – how would you feel if you were in the father’s position?” wrote Judy Schneider after signing the petition.
This is not the first that the civil society has to come forward as a pressure group to resolve such sensitive matters.
“Pakistani community is surprised and wonders if there are any unspoken rules that the community is unaware of?”
Last December, the family of a dying cancer patient, Hassan Asif, was denied the visa after which the immigration minister intervened to sort the matter.
“Pakistani community is surprised and wonders if there are any unspoken rules that the community is unaware of?” said Zarrin Siddiqui, President of a community organisation Pakistanis in Australia, in a media statement.
The petition that is hoping to have 15,000 signatures had attained close to 3400 signatures when this report was filed.
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