ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has demanded from the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take suo-motu of the plight of Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia.
According to the party’s media cell, PTI’s Central Deputy Secretary-General Murad Saeed has written to CJP and briefed him in detail about the miseries of Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia and pleaded him to take suo-motu action in this regard.
Murad maintained that “it is the constitutional responsibility of the state to ensure the protection of rights of its citizens across the world”. Thousands of Pakistanis, he said, are suffering in detention centres in Saudi Arabia and Pakistani labourers are facing financial hardships.
He further said that the Indian government has furnished Labor Protection Agreement with the Saudi government. Unfortunately, Murad Saeed lamented, Pakistani government turned a deaf ear to these problems and more heart wrenching was the government’s reluctance to provide legal assistance to those stranded Pakistanis.
He said that several Pakistanis are being deprived of the right to return to their homeland.
Coming hard upon the lethargic response of government, Murad stated that it is reprehensible that the foreign office doesn’t even know the exact figure of Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia. He maintained that Supreme Court is entrusted with the authority to interfere if the government fails to deliver its delegated tasks.
Therefore, he said, “PTI pleads to the CJP to take notice of the matter, thereby considering the letter as a constitutional petition and direct the government and concerned institutions to submit the details of the measures taken in this regard”.