How Pakistanis are treated in Saudi Arabia
Allow me to highlight some of the difficulties which the pilgrims from Pakistan have to face during the course of their visit to Saudi Arabia. Also the atrocities of the blood sucking mafia operating in our country in the shape of travel agents.
A senior colleague of mine has recently come back from Saudi Arabia. He went there to perform Umrah. He stayed there for thirty days during the Holy month of Ramadan.
From what I have heard from him, I do not think that the treatment meted out to him there, during the course of his stay, was entirely to his satisfaction.
He had been lucky enough, in the past, to perform the religious duty of Hajj in the year 1985. At that time Saudi Rial was worth two and a half Pakistani Rupees. When he now landed in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Rial had considerably gone up. To begin with, it was worth 25 Pakistani rupees. During the course of his stay, his market experience showed that the money exchangers of Saudi Arabia were not even prepared to accept 25 Pakistani rupees for one Saudi Rial. This degradation in the value of Pakistani currency was really mind boggling for him.
Even much worse treatment is being dealt out to the Pakistan currency by the USA dollar.
It is the talk of the day that most of the people, having lots of riches in Saudi Arabia, prefer to deposit the same in American banks, just like what the Pakistani politicians are reportedly doing. This flight of capital from the country seems to be the main reason for the sharp decline in the value of the Pakistani currency.
If the value of Saudi Rial keeps going up, who knows what consequence would result therefrom. If there is no let-up in the situation, the middle class and the lower middle class of Pakistan would soon come to realise that performance of the religious duty of Hajj and Umrah is something utterly beyond their financial capacity which facility would then possibly remain available only to the elitist class of Pakistan.
There are rows and rows of multistoried buildings in the two holy cities. The Mecca tower is the tallest. It is a massive building, having thousands of rooms. Someone told him that rent, per day, of a room in the Mecca tower is four thousand Saudi Rials. In terms of Pakistani currency, the rent would be Rs 100000/-. So, perhaps even the elite class of Pakistan cannot afford the luxury of staying in Mecca tower.
The message of our religion is that all human beings are equal, regardless of the colour of their skins, on account of being the offspring of Adam and Eve. However, as per him, during the course of his stay in Saudi Arabia, he felt that he was being treated as a human being of a lesser kind. Coming back to Mecca, from Madina, by a passenger bus, he and other Pakistani travellers were told, by the Arab bus driver, to disembark from the bus, pick up their luggage and to walk to their hotel, which happened to be at a considerable distance from the point, where the passenger bus was brought to a halt. The protests and entreaties of the passengers remained unheeded The Arab driver pointed out that beyond that point only Arabic speaking passengers had been allowed the privilege to move forward in a passenger bus, and that the said facility was not available to or could be claimed by non-Arabs.
This discriminatory treatment was quite unwelcome to the Pakistani passengers, but quite obviously they could do nothing about the same and were forced to march towards their hotel, on foot.
Does this mean that in the eyes of the Saudis, Pakistanis are Muslims of an inferior category?
In fact, the same discriminatory treatment was meted out to him even in the Islamic Republic of Iran when he went there some years ago for Ziarat. The shopkeepers and traders of Saudi Arabia do their utmost for depriving the Zairin of what little they have. In Mecca, a cup of coffee was worth two Rials in the beginning. The price later on went up initially to five Rials, for a single cup of coffee, and later to 13 Rials.
Perhaps the authorities concerned in Saudi Arabia do not think it proper to subject business community to any check or control.
Even before he left for Saudi Arabia, a surprise confronted him. The concerned travel agent demanded a sum of Rs 32,000/- as visa fee. He later learned that the government of Saudi Arabia does not charge even a single penny for issuing visas. The travel agents in the business thus appear to be operating like a mafia. They amass wealth by sucking the blood of the poor and unsuspecting pilgrims. The matter definitely needs to be looked into by the ministry. Especially when the religious affairs minister has been able to secure bail, after more than one year of his arrest, in a criminal case registered against him.
Both in Mecca and Madina, he found people openly enjoying soft drinks during day time. No one seemed to be interested in taking them to task for violating the sanctity of Ramadan. This failure to react, on part of the society, is a very healthy and pragmatic attitude.
With more money and riches people start having greed and exaggerated avarice for gold. This became apparent in Madina. On one side of the Haram there was a massive and far spread out market of gold smiths, who shut down their business only during the prayer time. Their shops were adorned and packed with sparkling and glittering golden ornaments. Glare and brilliance of gold is like hell fire. Presence of such a huge gold market, in such close proximity of the Masjid-e-Nabvi, is repugnant to good taste and quite un-salutary. Coming out of Haram, one is practically catapulted into the gold market, as if thrown from the heaven, into the hell. The Saudi authorities should be kind enough to look into this.
Finally, during Ramadan, whereas in Madina the hosts beg the Zairin to let them have the honour of joining them at Iftar time, the attitude at Mecca is quite different. The official staff in a harsh and disgraceful manner throw the Iftari packs at the Zairin, which induces in them the feeling as if they are beggars.
Value of the Indian Rupee and Bangla Deshi currency is much better in Saudi Arabia as compared to Pakistani currency. Most of the sanitation staff appears to have been recruited from Bangladesh, whereas in the not too distant past such staff used to be recruited from Pakistan.
It seems that Pakistan is no more treated as a favourable country in Saudi Arabia.
The writer is a lawyer.
How can you expect better treatment when you have succeeded in making your country a terrorist state and a most dangerous place to live in?
Qamar
I, being a Pakistani, was born and living in Saudi Arabia can wholeheartedly agree with all the points you have raised.
You Asked:
"Does this mean that in the eyes of the Saudis, Pakistanis are Muslims of an inferior category?"
Simply and Short answer would be Yes, absolutely.
These people not just consider us inferior muslims but inferior humans too
For example, Salaries for the same job are different for different people depending on their origin and skin color. HIghest Salaries are taken Saudi, One Step below comes the Westerners, Then comes the other brother Arabs. In the lowest category comes our desi Pakistanis, indians, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Indonesians
not only pakistani muslims they treat all asian muslims in the same manner
Saudi Arabia will see its own Arab spring inshAllah just like Egypt. Do not forget these are the Wahabi mentality Saudis who have destroyed the fabric of tolerance in Pakistani society by injecting their Pseudo-fundamentalist ideology of hate, greed and ignorance turning this land of Sufis into hell!! Wahabisim is a totally different concept that has nothing to do with the spirit of Islam but the way Saudies have brnaded it as Islam thanks to their petro-dollars, that has caused all the curse in poor nations like Pakistan! Let’s wait for the day when the Saudi kings in Riyadh ll see the same fate we the les miserable muslims have seen at the hands of terrorist wahabies!!
While Pakistanis firecly proclaim their Arab ancestry, the Arabs do not accept that claim and treat them like non-Arabs! Why are Pakistanis surprised? Stand in front of a mirror and take a good look at yourselves. Do you see an Arab? Of course not! For any one of you who has travelled abroad, were you were taken to be an Arab or an Indian?
Being indian you have to poke in. I dont think ethinically we proclaim any Arab ancestry, we are not forigners. We are from the land we born and our ancestors were bron. The only difference we embraced Islam and we decided to have a separate country on very same land we and our ancestors were born! Thats now called Pakistan. sooner to accept this reality the better.
I wonder why the so called lawyer complaining about Saudi people and state of Pakistani rupee here? He should right this in saudi newspaper about welcome he had received from the hosts.
I havent been to KSA yet, but what i have heard has already made up my mind about them. It looks like an illetrate and unjust society, where oil wealth has gone to their heads. They behave perfectly fine when in the west.
Only way to get respected in this world to have better economy for the country. When no labour would come from Pakistan and other similar countries, they will change as currently to them all Asians are slumdogs and beggers.
You must remember as V.S.Naipaul said Arabs are the original Muslims,the rest are all converts so the discrimination either as a pilgrim or for employment.
Due to incompetent leadership paksitanis are suffering abroad also; In riyadh there are lot of pakistanis however schools for their kids not sufficient. One school is being operated hiring few houses. No proper school building.
Zardari with assets one billion dollar plus sending his children to uk for studies.He simply does not care what is happening to other pakistanis inside and outside pakistan.
So finally people have come to acknowledge the fact that the Saudi's have become money minded, racists and so involved in their monetary greed that they simply disregard and disrespect anyone WHO is not one of them. Well lets remember that they are Saudi's (Aal-e-Saud, Saud being the monarch who allowed Wahabbism and made a stark difference between the rich and poor). If you want to see a true Arab, go meet an Iraqi or a Yemeni guy, they are still hospitable and respectful.
Irani's are of that sort as well, but their ego comes from race rather than status. The Saudi's follow both race and status as the grounds to give one respect or view him/her with disrespect.
Yes, they are not following the true teaching of Islam which gives the message of equality, consistency and not being greedy.
On the other hand, we as Pakistanis are also at fault. We are corrupt, lier's, hypocrites, greedy and what not……
Hence, to establish our status as a nation..we must first make amends in our society and our lives, only after which can we demand such respect.
All in Peace!
This problem is faced by all South Asians and Philipinees.The only way to reverse is by improving our economies/education. Instead of fighting over Kashmir, we all SAARC countries should have open borders, more co-operation, more human touch in interaction than religion.Pakistan has been hijacked by extremists.All peace loving sociaties should help Pakistan to get out of that grip.
"Does this mean that in the eyes of the Saudis, Pakistanis are Muslims of an inferior category?"
The answer is YES! This is also true of most of the world where pakistanis are less than welcomed!
The narrative about the Pakistani passengers forced to get off a bus and walk because 'only Arabs' are allowed to ride the bus beyond a certain point is quite striking. If the same incident had happened in any of the western countries, the passengers and all Islamic countries of the world would have been in an uproar. In addition, the passengers would have exploited the legal system of the western nation to its fullest advantage ( an example – the recent extradition of some Islamic clergy from UK to US to stand trial on terrorism charges) . But in Saudi Arabia, the Pakistanis meekly got out of the bus and walked to their destination as ordered even when the cultural discrimination was handed out by a country that is the citadel of their own religion.
All I could do was shake my head in disbelief.
Why the hell go to Saudi Arabia if they treat you as scum. You should return the favor when they come to your country.
Whoever told Islam treats everyone equal was joking. I have been to most of these countries. Arabs and Muslims are the biggest hypocrites. Non Saudis/GCC Arabs are treated like dogs. They have no rights and no voice. At least the governments of Philippines and Indonesia stand up to these tyrants to some extend. The governments of every South Asian suck up to them. I have never expected anything better to come out of these guys. After all they live their live their lives as per the Koran. Welcome to the Khalifa. The Ashraf live in palaces. Allah has ordained that they can treat the le miserable as a lesser being.
it is our worst ever corupt government which has ruined our economy,our image and trusted by anyone in world.it is isolated us in world.it has deliberately devalued rupee by 45 percent .no country respects the ruler and degradation all round. it is not abour saudi arabia but our corrupt and incompetent rulers
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