Lahore: At least 20,000 Pakistanis are currently imprisoned across 88 countries, mostly in Saudi Arabia and UAE, according to official data. Among those incarcerated, 68 Pakistani nationals face the death penalty, convicted for crimes such as terrorism, murder, and drug trafficking, The Express Tribune newspaper reported on Thursday citing the government report.
A vast majority of these prisoners are held in the United Arab Emirates (5,292) and Saudi Arabia (10,432), making up 74 per cent of the total. Besides, 463 Pakistanis are languishing in Malaysian prisons, 321 in the UK, and 578 in Oman, the report said. Many of them are also in jails in Turkey, Bahrain, Greece, China, the United States and Germany, it said.
"Once imprisoned, these individuals are left at the mercy of local legal systems, often without access to proper legal representation, impartial translators, or sufficient support from Pakistani embassies," the report said. Earlier last year, Saudi Arabia raised concerns with Islamabad as a majority of people who travel to the Kingdom are involved in either begging or pickpocketing.
In fact, this was also attested by Secretary Overseas Pakistanis Zeeshan Khanzada, who during a meeting of the Senate's standing committee for Overseas Pakistanis, asserted that most of the Pakistanis travelling abroad, are purposely involved in begging, Pakistan English website, The News International reported.
90% of Pakistanis involved in pickpocketing in Saudi
In a shocking claim, Rana Mahmoodul Hassan Kakar in the chair told the forum that almost 90 per cent of Pakistani citizens travel to the Middle East country under the guise of "pilgrimage". Also, he said that Saudi Arabia told the Pakistani officials that the majority of the pickpockets arrested from within Makkah's grand mosque are Pakistani nationals.
"Ambassadors of Iraq and Saudi Arabia complain to us that their prison facilities have been overrun [due to Pakistani beggars that enter the country via unauthorised channels]. This issue now befalls within the category of human trafficking," the media outlet quoted Khanzada as saying.
Even Nepal has more skilled people than Pakistan
Further, Chairman Kakar, in a shocking claim, said that only 200 Pakistanis travelled to Japan after the island country had floated a requirement of 3,40,000 skilled people. On the other hand, over 1,50,000 Indians and 91,000 people from Nepal went to Japan, the committee chairman said. "We have 50,000 unemployed engineers...whereas Nepal which has a total population of 30 million, managed to train their people in the Japanese language [and send them there]," he added.
Moreover, informing about the preparations made with regard to Newtech's proposal to the Saudi government, Kakar claimed that the initial proposal sent by Islamabad was turned down by Saudi.
"The committee chairman — in light of the fact that Saudi Arabia requires skilled labour — also suggested sending [at least] 50,000 trained people to the Middle-Eastern country," he stressed.
(With inputs from agency)
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