Govt urged to help Pakistanis languishing in foreign jails

PESHAWAR: Speakers at a seminar on Thursday asked the government to provide legal and financial assistance to thousands of Pakistani labourers imprisoned in the Gulf States and other countries.
The Pakistan Workers Party had organised the seminar at the Peshawar Press Club to highlight the plight of overseas Pakistanis. The representatives of civil society, legal experts, human rights activists and dozens of affected overseas Pakistanis attended the event.
On the occasion, Pakistan Workers Party presented its programme and policy for economic migrants, skilled and unskilled workers, and labourers working abroad.
A joint communiqué passed at the end of the day-long conference asked the federal government to announce a special package for the overseas Pakistanis who had been imprisoned or who suffered at the hands of local and international companies in the Gulf and other countries.
Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan Workers Party head Fanoos Gujar said that the party would raise the issue of Pakistani workers at the national and international levels, and approach the progressive and leftist organisations of these countries to make a joint cause.
“We will also support Pakistan government for raising voice for the affected Pakistani workers in Saudi Arabia, Oman and other Gulf States,” he said. He asked the United Nations to take notice of the inhuman and anti-workers attitude with foreign workers at the hands of local people and companies.
He said, the party would organise and facilitate the labour community for seeking their rights in a country where they were working.Noted social worker and human rights activist Asmat Shah Jehan said that according to Bureau of Immigration and Overseas Employment, some 8.7 million Pakistanis had gone to abroad as economic migrants from 1970 to 2015 wherein 97 percent were working in Gulf States, Malaysia, USA, Germany, Spain and Afghanistan.
“These are the registered figures of the Pakistanis working abroad while the actual number would be doubled if the illegal migrants are considered,” she said. She added that unfortunately there was no labour policy in Pakistan for the economic migrants who shared a major chunk in foreign exchange through their remittances.”
The Pakistan Workers Party asked the Pakistan government to provide legal and diplomatic assistance to those Pakistani workers who had been deprived of their hard-earned money by local people and companies in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States.
The participants asked Overseas Pakistanis Foundation to pay the compensation amount to the affected people, particularly to Pakhtuns, during the Gulf War as thousands of Pakistanis had left that country when Iraq attacked Kuwait.