Legal help requested for Pakistanis jailed in KSA

JPP says govt should contact Saudi authorities to stop execution of Pakistani prisoners

LAHORE:

A petition was filed in Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday requesting the court to direct the federal government to provide consular support and assistance to Pakistani death row prisoners in Saudi Jails.

The Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) filed the petition requesting the judge to order the Pakistani government to approach the Saudi government for stopping the execution of Pakistani prisoners.





The petition includes the accounts of families whose members have been recently beheaded in Saudi Arabia but they have yet to receive the bodies.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah would take up the petition on Tuesday (today).

The petition includes affidavits of two Pakistanis who had previously been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. They have alleged torture under the Saudi criminal justice system, and accused the Pakistani authorities of callousness.



JPP’s Sarah Belal said Muhammad Khalid and Muhammad Arif Gujjar had been subjected to torture during investigation forcing them to confess to their “crime”.

“Their accounts show that they were unaware of the reason for their arrest. Their family members were also not informed about their arrest. They were not provided access to a counsel by the Saudi court,” Belal said.



“Such cases show blatant violation of fundamental rights… it is the constitutional duty of the state to uphold rights of its citizens and protect them even outside the geographic boundaries of the country.”



She said the government was bound to provide legal aid to Pakistanis imprisoned in the Middle East. “Pakistani migrant workers imprisoned in the Middle East are at the mercy of local courts without access to lawyers, impartial translators and consular assistance.

The poor and hardworking Pakistanis, abandoned by their own country, face the harshest punishments due to their lack of understanding of the legal process, inability to communicate directly with the court and to produce evidence from Pakistan in their defence,” the lawyer said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2015.