NA body seeks details of steps taken for getting overseas Pakistanis released

A meeting of the National Assembly sub-committee on overseas Pakistanis has asked the government to provide details of the measures it has taken to get overseas Pakistanis released from detention centres in various countries. The meeting of the three-member subcommittee, headed by Mahreen Razzaq Bhutto, was held here on Wednesday to look into the reasons for detention of overseas Pakistani in different countries and formulate recommendations to help in releasing them from jails/ detentions centers.
The committee has sought details about the measures being taken from the government within ten days and decided that after getting update, it would first look into the cases in two countries Saudi Arabia and Oman, in the first step and then would take up the cases of the UAE and Greece.
Chaudhry Javed Khalid of PML-N said as this was the first meeting of the sub-committee, the members have decided to first get knowledge from the government what measures have so far been taken with regard to detained Pakistan and then it would submit recommendations to the main committee and then to the government. The meeting was told that 3,000 Pakistanis are detained in Oman for minor crimes such as expiry of visas, overstay or illegal entry. The meeting was also informed that trial of 500 Pakistanis is going on in Oman for their alleged involvement in different crimes.
Similarly, there are a number of Pakistanis in Saudi jails with some of them are convicted while others are under-trial. The government has been trying to take up the matter through its embassy for those involved in minor crimes to get them released and a considerable number of Pakistanis have already been released by Saudi authorities after the matter was taken up with them during the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to Pakistan.