Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution and demanded the federal government to diplomatically resolve the problems of Pakistan community living in the Gulf countries.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MPA Sahibzada Sanaullah presented the resolution, which was signed by the opposition parties as well as the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf members.

In the resolution, it was stated that there were more than 2,500,000 Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia of which around 200,000 were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who sent handsome amount of money to Pakistan every year. It was also stated in the resolution that the sponsors (Kafils) in Saudi Arabia were not creating problems for labours belonging to Pakistan, compelling them to live under miserable conditions. It said that the labourers were ready to return to Pakistan, as they were tired of the harsh treatment of sponsors and strict rules of the Saudia Arabia. It was mentioned that around 1, 68,000 Pakistanis were forcefully blacklisted and deported from Saudi Arabia.

The resolution also demanded the federal government to enhance the visa complaint counters from two to five, as two counters were insufficient for millions of Pakistanis labours working in Saudi Arabia.

On the occasion, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser said a letter in this regard was already sent to Prime Minister’s Adviser Sartaj Aziz, asking him to discuss the issue. However, he regretted, there was no response from the federal government even after passage of one month.

He requested the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders present in the provincial assembly to discuss the issue with Sartaj Aziz on emergency basis so that the grievances of labourers could be addressed on time.