Daily Times

Lahore: The Lahore High Court has admitted the findings of the joint report prepared by the Justice Project Pakistan and the Human Rights Watch regarding the plight of Pakistanis incarcerated in Saudi Arabia, said a press statement issued on Monday.

Caught in a Web

Treatment of Pakistani Prisoners in the Saudi Criminal Justice System was launched last month.

The statement said JPP had filed this litigation on behalf of 10 Pakistani prisoners detained in Saudi Arabia. The petitioners’ counsel, Barrister Sarah Belal, apprised the court that on March 28, 2018, that the federal cabinet had granted approval for the signing of an agreement for the transfer of convicted individuals between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Chief Justice Muhammad Yawar Ali, while hearing the petition filed by the families of Pakistanis imprisoned in the Gulf country, stated, “In the interest of justice, this treaty must be submitted in the court after being signed.”

“Covering 22 cases, the joint JPP-HRW report documents the plight of Pakistani citizens imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. They are doubly vulnerable, considering they are treated worse than any other nationality and are the highest number of foreign nationals executed in Saudi Arabia.

“Detained Pakistanis suffer rampant due process violations, such as long periods of detention without charge or trial, no access to legal assistance, pressure from the authorities to sign confessions and accept predetermined prison sentences, and ineffective translation services for defendants in the Saudi criminal justice system.

“So far, at least 67 Pakistanis have been executed in Saudi Arabia since October 2014,eight of them just this year alone. Their families are yet to receive their bodies. As of now,2,795 Pakistani citizens remain detained in Saudi Arabia.

“At least 9,360 Pakistanis are detained in prisons all over the world, with 5,798 in Gulf countries alone. Prisoner transfer agreements have historically been instrumental for the return of Pakistanis prisoners, many of whom are particularly vulnerable to harsher sentences in foreign countries due to their indigent status,” the statement said.

Sarah Belal, JPP executive director, was quoted as saying,”We congratulate the government on negotiating the agreement with Saudi Arabia to help protect some of its most vulnerable citizens. We have always maintained that whenever the government intervene to help Pakistani citizens abroad, they have been successful, and this agreement will only enhance our ability to protect them. The critical next step to make these reforms meaningful and effective is to enact a consular protection policy that ensures timely justice for all Pakistanis, no matter where they are.”

Published in Daily Times, April 4^th 2018.