The Lahore High Court on Friday directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to submit an updated list of Pakistani prisoners repatriated from Saudi jails along with a report on the efforts made to ensure their repatriation since February 18, 2019, when Crown Prince MBS announced the immediate release of 2,107 Pakistanis.
The directions were given by Honourable Justice Ayesha Malik during the hearing of a petition filed by Justice Project Pakistan on behalf of ten Pakistanis on death row in Gulf countries. The petition prays to enforce the fundamental rights of Pakistani citizens facing execution in jails across the Gulf countries. The hearing was later adjourned for a month.
Last year on November 12, a list of 579 Pakistani prisoners released from Saudi Arabia was submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Lahore High Court. An analysis of that list revealed that less than five percent of those prisoners had returned after the crown prince’s announcement.
The rest had been repatriated prior to that. A research by Justice Project Pakistan shows that the number of overseas prisoners has increased by 26% since 2014. An increase in the number of Pakistanis imprisoned in Saudi Arabia was also recorded during the same period.
According to documents submitted earlier by the Ministry of Interior in the Lahore High Court, nearly 11,000 Pakistanis are languishing in foreign jails.
These destitute Pakistanis face the harshest punishments due to their lack of understanding of and assistance with the legal process, incapability to communicate directly with the court, and inability to produce evidence from Pakistan in their defence.
Despite these circumstances, there is no consular policy in place and the fate of imprisoned Pakistanis rests at the discretion of individual embassies. Sarah Belal, Executive Director of Justice Project Pakistan, adds:
“The lack of clarity on the repatriation of prisoners from Saudi Arabia is disappointing. Ramazan is less than two months away and it is an opportunity for the government to amp up its efforts to bring back these Pakistanis who have been waiting for the fulfillment of the promise made by the crown prince for more than a year now.”
