PHILADELPHIA — Robert Barkat died at a nursing home in Yeadon, Pennsylvania, this week, his last and only wish unfulfilled — to see his son one more time.
The U.S. State Department refused to let the son enter the country from Pakistan to visit his stricken father, who had been treated for lung cancer at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby.
Barkat, 74, known as Rocky, was given asylum in this country in 1995, after being persecuted in Pakistan because of his Christian religious beliefs. In 2019, the government granted him U.S. citizenship — he took the oath in Philadelphia.
