Help sought for death-row inmates

LAHORE: Families of several Pakistani migrant workers held a demonstration in front of the Lahore Press Club on Monday to protest “inadequate” protection for their loved ones facing execution in Saudi Arabia. The demonstration was organised with the support of Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a human rights law firm. Nearly 120 family members had gathered appealing to the government for help, said a statement issued by the JPP.

Four Pakistanis have been beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year. In 2015, 23 were put to death. The families of the executed were yet to receive their bodies, it said.

It said the government of Pakistan had various human rights obligations towards its migrant workers, under both domestic and international laws. Under the Constitution, it is obligated to ensure that the fundamental right to security of person (Article 9), safeguard from arrest and detention (Article 10), due process (Article 10A), dignity of man and protection from torture (Article 14) remain protected regardless of where a Pakistani national is resident (Article 4). Pakistan continued to fall short of these obligations through its failure to put a universal consular policy in place.

“This is compounded by the violations that the Saudi Arabian justice system is rife with. International law, accepted as binding by Saudi Arabia, provides that capital punishment may only be imposed following trials that comply with the most stringent requirements of fair trial and due process.”

And yet, according to the JPP, Pakistani migrant workers imprisoned in the Middle East are at the mercy of local courts without access to lawyers, impartial translators and consular assistance from Pakistani diplomatic missions.

In most, if not all, cases, migrant workers facing execution for narcotics offences have been drugged, tortured, kidnapped or held under duress by agents who promote overseas employment until they ingest drug capsules before boarding their flight. “They are cleared through immigration in Pakistan, but are arrested at the Saudi airport during immigration; that is usually the last their families hear from them for months.”

According to the JPP, there are 2,393 Pakistanis in jails all over Saudi Arabia. Many of them are at risk of execution by beheading. Their families, left behind in Pakistan, have limited access to their loved ones and little legal recourse to help save them, it said.

JPP director Sarah Belal adds, “Pakistan’s failure to install a universal consular policy continues to put its citizens abroad in grave danger. Given Saudi Arabia’s disregard for judicial independence and due process, it is imperative for Pakistan to come to the aid of these prisoners, examine their cases and take meaningful steps to dismantle the system that puts them at risk of execution. Saudi Arabia is Pakistan’s ally, yet continues to execute the most Pakistanis.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2016.