The family members of a missing Hajj pilgrim Abdul Ghafoor Khan, who is under alleged illegal confinement of the Saudi Intelligence Agency since August 19, 2016, have urged the government to assist in recovering him. The family members of the missing pilgrim also requested the Chief Justice Supreme Court to take a suo motu notice of the issue.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis embark upon religious journey to fulfil their long cherished dream of performing Hajj. Unfortunately, every year the management of Haj is botched by the government officials leaving thousands of pilgrims in miserable condition.
During Haj 2016, where the mismanagement on the part of Pakistani officials have led to deaths of scores of pilgrims, and missing of number of pilgrims while some are languishing in Saudi Jails. Pilgrims complaints in r/o transport as well as residential and provision of food facilities to the pilgrims were lodged.
Furthermore, luggage of hundreds of pilgrims' were lost while others were delivered unhealthy food, scores were scammed of their belongings on different pretexts. A number of people have gone missing due to the late deliverance of electronic safety bracelets. The negotiations done with the Saudi authorities for arrangement of facilities have been poorly managed, which led to these unfortunate incidents, which resulted in loss of scores of precious lives.
Another tragic aspect of management of Hajj-2016 that a number of Pilgrims are languishing in Saudi jails over petty issues, while others are still reportedly, missing even after the lapse of more than 120 days. Even there are credible reports that Saudi government officials are not co-operating with their Pakistani counterparts regarding the issue of missing pilgrims which is of grave concern of a brother Muslim countries.-PR