The gentle art of persuasion

Cosmopolitan and chaotic Beirut

A few weeks back I did a short trip across to Beirut for various meetings, and also to pick up a visa for a planned visit to Pakistan. The process for gaining a visa for Pakistan can be challenging, and is now becoming increasingly bureaucratic. The process starts with obtaining an internal security clearance from the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which can take up to 2 months), and then culminates in actual issuing and collection of the visa at a Pakistan consulate. As there is no Pakistan embassy in Cyprus, the designated location for Cypriot residents to collect a Pakistan entry visa is Beirut.

A quiet morning commute in Beirut!

I've been through this process a number of times over recent years, and have always been able to show up at the Pakistan Consulate in Beirut, and wait while the visa was processed and issued on the same day. Alas this was not the case a few weeks ago. I turned up at the consulate, passed through the security gauntlet of numerous chain-smoking and heavily armed Lebanese Army soldiers in the building's basement and then headed to the 8th floor, cleared more armed soldiers and security before finally entering the consulate, only to be told that I could drop my passport off but that the passport and visa would not be ready for collection for atleast 1 week. Not so helpful when I was scheduled to fly back to Cyprus the following evening, and due to fly to Pakistan on Sunday. So what to do? Negotiating bureaucracy in an embassy is not always easy, especially when the said location is a little disorganised (to put it politely......organised chaos would be a more apt description)! I took a deep breath, and asked whether I could meet with the diplomat in charge. Thankfully I was offered a chance to do this some half an hour later, and so proceeded to explain my situation and also to outline the credentials of our ongoing work in Pakistan. He was gracious and heard me out, and said that on this one occasion they could make an exception and fastrack the issuing of the visa, but that I would still need to return the next day to collect it (which would involve once again running the gauntlet of Beirut traffic). So I returned the next day, successfully collected the visa and was on my way back to Cyprus that evening (somewhat relieved at not having to sit in Beirut for a another week awaiting my passport)!

Gridlock in the Beirut traffic