Apropos of P. K. Abdul Ghafour’s news item, “Nitaqat cleanup: 2 million face ax,” published in the Arab News (March 24), I am both disturbed and contemplative.
It is really disturbing to see two million expatriates packing up and leaving for their home countries suddenly for no fault of their own. The Saudi business establishments — small or medium or big — sought the visas; the government issued the visas; and one fine morning, those hapless workers who had come here on those visas with a dream are given the marching order.
What about the concerned departments and authorities that issued the visas; and what about those erring businessmen who did it all? Will they ever come up under any extent of scrutiny? Why punishing only those who had come from outside, not for begging here but for serving the nation which they loved as much as they loved their own country?
All these questions I am posing not just for the sake of questioning; but because, undoubtedly, if there is any country on earth that thinks of humanity at large, it is this Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and I can go at any length to support my viewpoint. I am raising the issue also because Custodian of the Holy Mosques King Abdullah is rightly considered as a benevolent monarch. And all this goes hand in hand with the principles of an ideal state under Islam.
A country definitely runs properly when it takes its domestic interests into account by making rules and regulations as they suit it, but surely it should not be at the cost of humanity in general. — M. Zakir Hossain, Jeddah
A kindly Kingdom
