PAKISTAN’S ambassador to Saudi Arabia has returned to the country while orders have been issued to six other officers of the embassy in Riyadh to return over complaints by Pakistani community in the kingdom, the Foreign Office said in a statement on Thursday.
It said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had ordered an inquiry and his directions were being implemented.
There have been unending complaints about carefree attitude of most of our diplomatic missions abroad that pay scant attention to redressal of grievances of overseas Pakistanis.
The Prime Minister has done well by taking a strong action against concerned officials of the embassy in Riyadh yet complaints are not just KSA-specific as similar lapses and neglect in service delivery has also been reported from a number of other countries especially those where overseas Pakistanis have large concentration.
The premier has tasked his Inspection Commission to hold an inquiry and submit a report within fifteen days and hopefully this would be followed by a concrete action plan to ensure that things improve at all our missions abroad.
Of course, there are sincere and hardworking envoys and staff members in a number of countries but others consider their appointment and stay abroad as excursion trips without regard to safeguarding core interests of the country including promotion of bilateral trade and resolution of problems encountered by Pakistani Diaspora. This kind of behaviour at the expense of taxpayers’ money cannot be tolerated.
