The Interior Ministry said that it has moved a case to the Finance Division for an additional grant of $35,000 in order arrangements for the return of 11,803 overseas Pakistanis detained in 66 different countries.
According to a local media report, the ministry submitted a list in the Lahore High Court on the direction of the court in response to a petition asking the government to take appropriate measures for the return claiming that “the government had done nothing for them”.
The ministry gave a record revealing that “2,937 Pakistani expats are currently detained in Saudi Arabia, making it the top country on the list of detained Pakistanis and that there were total 2,600,000 Pakistani residing in the Kingdom.”
The local media report further stated that “Greece is second of the 66 countries, with 1,842 Pakistanis detained out of the 24,900 residing there”. Oman comes third with “657 overseas Pakistanis detained out of the total 271,143 overseas Pakistanis currently living there”.
With “582 overseas Pakistanis locked behind bars, India stands fourth while China comes fifth with 242 detainees followed by Iran and Afghanistan with 186 and 177 Pakistani expats locked up”.
There are six countries namely Belarus, Kazakhstan, Morocco, North Korea, Zimbabwe and Norway where one prisoner had been detained in each while the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a population of 1,500,000 Pakistanis has detained none.