I owe my freedom to Saudi government, says jubilant Pakistani trucker as he arrives home

KARACHI: A Pakistani truck driver, who on Monday morning arrived in Karachi after spending about seven years in a Saudi prison, said he got his freedom due to the kindness of the Saudi authorities, particularly King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
“I am extremely thankful to Allah and then King Salman, whose special kindness helped me come out of the jail,” the trucker, Zahir Hussain Zar Khan, told Arab News in Karachi.
Khan recalled he had several dreams when he went to Saudi Arabia as a driver in 2012. “I wanted to support my family and make a bright future for my children,” he said. However, those dreams shattered almost a year later when, in 2013, he had an accident on the Makkah Highway in which four people lost their lives and he was sent to jail for negligent driving.
Khan said the diyāt – or blood money – demanded by the families of deceased individuals was too high for him, making him think he would spend his entire life in prison. “It was the kindness of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, which put an end to my agony and ensured my freedom,” Khan said.
He added his elder daughter Afreen Khan started crying when he connected with his family in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province through a video call on Monday morning, asking him to straightaway come home.
Khan said he wanted to spend some time with his children, wife and ailing mother who he had missed him in all these years. “I will try my luck here in Pakistan; but if get a chance, I will love to go back to Saudi Arabia since it is a kind land for poor and jobless people.”