JEDDAH: Five Umrah pilgrims from a Pakistani family have been freed after being arrested on arrival in the Kingdom for possession of drugs.
“They are leaving for Pakistan within a day or two,” Pakistan’s Consul General Zaigham Uddin Azam told Arab News on Tuesday.
Muhammad Arif Chauhan, his wife Shumaila, Anis Ahmad, his wife Rabia and Ahmad’s mother, who were duped by a Pakistani travel agent, were arrested on charges of possessing drugs several weeks ago. Following an appeal by the Pakistani government, Saudi authorities ordered their release.
Azam, who is returning home in early October after a diplomatic stint of three and a half years, paid tribute to the brotherly relations between the two countries that have helped the arrested family to be freed. “Our relations with Saudi Arabia have been very close and improved a lot in the recent past,” he said.
The consul general also referred to the Kingdom’s elaborate and improved arrangements that enabled 165,000 Pakistanis to perform Haj last year. “We have requested an increase of 10 percent in our pilgrimage quota so that 180,000 of our pilgrims can come for Haj this year,” he said. “We have already finalized all logistics including housing and transport for most of our pilgrims,” he added.
Pakistan’s bilateral trade with Saudi Arabia has been expanding but it remains in favor of the Kingdom. “The gap is wide, as our exports amount to $500 million and imports $4.5 billion,” he said, adding that his country had 500,000 acres of land under cooperative farming where surplus production of rice, wheat and other cereals would be made available to Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. Saudis have invested $800 million in Pakistan’s agricultural sector. There is also proposal for a foreign direct investment of $5 billion by the Saudi businessmen in the country’s petrochemical sector.
Azam, who regularly visits jails in Makkah province to provide assistance to imprisoned Pakistanis, said he had been able to meet all his countrymen spending time in the region’s 11 jails and extend consular help to them. “We have also been able to get SR3.5 million due to our community members from local sponsors through the Saudi courts,” said Azam. He returns to Islamabad as director general of the foreign office.
Work is progressing to open new community schools in Madinah and Jazan, he said, adding: “We are trying to establish a 50-bed hospital with funds generated from the community in Jeddah in collaboration with Saudi German Hospital,” Azam said.
About a proposal to move the consulate to a new location, Azam said: “We have acquired five acres of land in Rehab district of Jeddah, but we cannot go ahead as the local authorities have a different plan. It seems there is a move to create a Diplomatic Quarter like the one in Riyadh for all consulates here.”
Azam said he was returning with great satisfaction as his posting here enabled him to be close to the two holy cities.
