Pakistan seeks royal pardon for prisoners
Published: Sep 6, 2010 00:19 Updated: Sep 6, 2010 00:19
RIYADH: A senior Pakistani diplomat has sought royal clemency for about 300 Pakistani prisoners languishing in Saudi jails whose families have been rendered homeless by floods in Pakistan.
Pakistani Ambassador Umar Khan Alisherzai appealed to the Saudi government on Sunday to release and repatriate prisoners who have been convicted for petty crimes.
“The total number of Pakistani prisoners across the Kingdom exceeds 4,000, including those whose cases are still to be tried by Saudi courts.”
He said Saudi authorities had assured him they would facilitate the release of prisoners, referring to recent talks with Prince Naif, second deputy premier and minister of interior.
He added that the Pakistani government in Islamabad is also taking the necessary steps for the release of its civilians in foreign jails, including Saudi Arabia.
The Pakistani government has reportedly instructed its embassies and missions abroad to collect data about Pakistanis currently serving time in different jails.
However, it has not issued any instructions about those who have been found guilty in cases involving terrorism and smuggling. A government report said that at least 7,934 Pakistanis were in different jails in 51 countries, with 5,273 of them in Saudi Arabia and 472 in India.
Ambassador Alisherzai said that fresh flooding had forced thousands of people to once again flee large parts of southern Pakistan.
“About 22 million people have been displaced so far, more than one million houses have been damaged and over a million units of livestock have perished until today,” he added.
A month into the disaster, the waters in Sindh province, especially along the Indus River, show no signs of disappearing anytime soon, he added.
He said that traveling by boat was the only way to visit some of the flood-ravaged areas or meet disaster victims.
Many towns and villages have become almost like ghost towns because people have migrated to unknown destinations to escape the floodwaters, said Alisherzai. More than 2,000 deaths have also been reported so far, he noted.
There are still 800,000 Pakistanis trapped by floods in different areas where aid and relief operations are still too difficult to be carried out, he said.
The floods have affected more than 17 million people and eight million of them require immediate life-saving aid, he said.
According to official estimates, the floods have destroyed or damaged 1.2 million homes, more than one million people are living in tents and at least five million others are in need of emergency shelter.
Thanking Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, the Saudi government and their people for their generous support, Alisherzai pointed out that the Kingdom had sent 30 planeloads of relief materials to Pakistan so far.
This is in addition to the help extended by several charities and philanthropists like Kingdom Holding Company chairman Prince Alwaleed, who donated SR10 million recently. He said the Kingdom has always been at the forefront of aid efforts for Pakistan in hours of need and calamities.
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