- Prime Minister Khan is following in the footsteps of Zulfikhar Ali Bhutto
First of all, a disclaimer: I do not have ‘Mamu ka beta Kamran’ as the viral social media posts are making fun of the return of prisoners from Saudi Arabian jails to Pakistan. Anyway, the whole people of Pakistan were overjoyed after hearing the news of the release of 2,107 Pakistani prisoners from the Saudi jails.
This all happened thanks to a passionate plea by Prime Minister Imran Khan to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman on February 18 who was on official tour to Pakistan. At a high-level function, Mr Khan stood up and put up the demand for the release of Pakistani prisoners. Though the crown prince did not commit anything In his subsequent brief speech, but in fact, the crown prince had conveyed his orders to the Saudi authorities to immediately release a good number of prisoners from jails.
On February 19, a royal decree was issued by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to comply with the orders of the crown prince. Soon, the social media went viral with the news that of more than 3,000 prisoners had been released.
Prime Minister Khan also expressed his gratitude to the crown prince for honouring his demand.
He said the entire Pakistani nation was thankful to the prince for his act of kindness in releasing the detained people.
No one can fathom the level of gratitude of the immediate family members of the detained people from the Saudi jail, where criminal justice needs to be reformed.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in his tweet welcomed the move of the crown prince
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in his tweet welcomed the move of the crown prince saying, “HRH Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has graciously agreed to free 2107 Pakistanis with immediate effect, while rest of the cases will be reviewed later.”
The release of the prisoners overshadowed the great economic success of the tour where the visiting delegates signed the memorandum of understanding worth $21 billion. Such a huge volume of investment in Pakistan can be a great game-changer. As their trickle-down effects will take time to benefit the grassroots people, the immediate release of a good number of prisoners has sent the crowd dancing.
The fact not being discussed right now is that over 1,000 prisoners are still in Saudi jails, and either side has chosen not to comment on their future.
It is good to see that this incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government finally had some good news for the masses after coming into power in July last year. This is not for the first time that such a huge number of prisoners has been secured by a prime minister in a single stroke. Not many millennials would know that former prime minister and PPP founder chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the first prime minister who single-handedly managed to get 90,000 war prisoners released from arch-rivals India following the Simla agreement back in the early 70s.
So, whether the PTI admits it or not, Prime Minister Khan is following in the footsteps of Zulfikhar Ali Bhutto.
Pakistanis are the second largest migrant community living in Saudi Arabia (1.6 million migrant Pakistani workers).
According to an interior ministry report which was submitted in the Lahore High Court on September14, 2018 at least 2,937 prisoners are currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia.
To fulfil the promise made to the people of Pakistan by Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has released 125 prisoners from Saudi jails on February 21.
Executive Director of the Justice Project Pakistan Sarah Belal believes that this comes after a long effort to secure the rights of vulnerable Pakistani migrant workers imprisoned in the GCC countries.
As the prisoners’ release is being done on a royal decree, Ms Belal wants some permanent arrangements in place to secure the rights of Pakistani prisoners in foreign jails.
“The government must continue its diplomatic engagement with the Saudi administration and negotiate and sign a prisoner transfer agreement with them. The government must also push the Saudi authorities diplomatically to immediately halt the executions of Pakistanis prisoners while the two countries negotiate a prisoner transfer agreement.”
She suggests some other measures too.
“The government must implement a universal consular protection policy providing guidelines to all Pakistani missions abroad. Ensuring that missions follow through on their responsibilities to Pakistani citizens arrested and detained abroad will facilitate their release and repatriation, if and when necessary.
“Pakistan must sign prisoner transfer agreements with countries with a significant number of Pakistani prisoners and detainees so that these prisoners can serve their sentences in their home country.”
“The government must initiate a rehabilitation and reintegration program encompassing opportunities of education, employment, and mental and physical wellbeing. In order to facilitate the process of reintegration, the government must make the process of obtaining official documents easier and free of charge.”