EDITORIAL: Millions of Pakistanis travel to or live and work in other countries, where they may need consular protection from diplomatic missions in the event of arrest, serious accident, loss of travel documents or some other extraneous cause of trouble. It is standard practice for governments elsewhere to device guiding principles and policies for provision of effective consular services to their citizens abroad. But no such luck for Pakistanis working overseas, whose remittances play a vital role in augmenting this country’s foreign exchange reserves. A recent meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights was informed by foreign ministry officials that as many as 13,456 of our people are imprisoned abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. At present, 7, 860 are under trial.
A large number of those arrested and detained are accused of petty crimes. Since most of them are barely literate working-class Pakistanis, they have little knowledge of the laws of their host states. A further complicating factor is that the legal proceedings are conducted in Arabic, of which they have poor understanding. Generally speaking, unable to comprehend the charges and offer defence they end up in jails. That makes it all the more important that they receive help from Pakistani missions in those countries. The issue, in fact, has been hanging fire for long.
Participating in the upper house penal discussions Senator Walid Iqbal recalled that while hearing a related case in 2017, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, the then Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, had called for formulation of a proper policy on the subject, to no avail though. Senator Mushahid Hussein wanted to know if the foreign ministry had undertaken any initiative to provide relief to these prisoners and also the status of some 2,100 incarcerated in Saudi Arabia at the time, i.e., February 2019 of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Pakistan, and on then prime minister Imran Khan’s request had agreed to release them soon. There was no satisfactory answer to either query. Little surprise hence that so many Pakistanis are languishing in several countries’ jails, which not only inflicts unnecessary suffering on them and their families, but also projects a bad image of this country.
The issue should get the attention it deserves. Like citizens of other countries, Pakistanis everywhere must have consular assistance. The Senate committee has directed the foreign ministry to formulate a uniform consular protection policy, and thoughtfully set a timeline of three months for its approval by the new government. Hopefully, the same will get done and implemented in letter and spirit.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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