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.”
I owe my freedom to Saudi government, says jubilant Pakistani trucker as he arrives home
I owe my freedom to Saudi government, says jubilant Pakistani trucker as he arrives home
- Saudi bait-ul-maal paid SAR1.3 million as blood money to secure Zahir Khan’s freedom last month
- Khan was jailed after a 2013 road accident that claimed four lives on Makkah Highway
Pakistan’s interior minister accuses Imran Khan’s party of politicizing health issues
- Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi rejects reports of Imran Khan losing 85 percent vision in his affected eye
- Health concerns for Khan’s eye ailment have triggered protests and road closures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Tuesday accused former prime minister Imran Khan’s party of politicizing his health issues for mileage, reiterating that the government had granted him adequate medical treatment in prison.
Naqvi’s response came hours after Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party rejected a government-issued medical report on his eye condition, demanding authorities allow family members and his personal physician to examine him in prison.
Health concerns emerged last week after a court-appointed lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, visited Khan at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail and reported that the former premier had suffered “severe vision loss” in his right eye due to central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), leaving him with about 15 percent sight in the affected eye.
Jail authorities said a team of doctors from multiple hospitals examined Khan on Sunday and submitted findings to a court. A two-page medical document circulated on social media stated that unaided vision in Khan’s right eye was 6/24 and 6/9 in the left, improving to 6/9 (partial) and 6/6 respectively with glasses. While Naqvi has confirmed a medical report has been released, he did not discuss its findings.
Speaking to reporters in Lahore during a press conference, the interior minister accused the PTI of creating a “propaganda” that Khan had lost 85 percent vision in his affected eye.
“It is our obligation to tell people this much that whatever cells in your [PTI] party that are doing this, beware of them,” he said. “They are enemies of the people and are trying to do their politics under the guise of some other objectives.”
Naqvi said contrary to what the PTI was doing, the government did not want to politicize Khan’s eye ailment, adding that the welfare of every prisoner was its responsibility.
“After all this thing I have come to the conclusion about some people [in PTI] that they care more about their politics than his [Khan’s] health,” he said.
Sharing details of the checkup, Naqvi said he invited PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan to reach Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, where Khan is imprisoned, to witness the former premier’s medical examination on Sunday. However, the minister said Gohar refused, citing party consultations.
He said Gohar, along with the opposition leaders in the Senate and National Assembly— Allama Raja Nasir Abbas and Mehmood Khan Achakzai--and their preferred doctors were invited to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for a briefing on Khan’s checkup.
Naqvi said Gohar, Abbas and Achakzai, along with the doctors, expressed satisfaction over Khan’s examination. However, he alleged Khan’s sister Aleema Khanum told party members that if they accepted the government’s version, “the issue would die down.”
“You also got the medical report yesterday,” Naqvi told reporters. “And in it, all things are clear.”
Khan’s health concern has sparked protests by supporters, including demonstrations and road closures in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where his party governs, and a sit-in outside parliament in Islamabad.
FORMER CAPTAINS RALLY FOR KHAN
Separately, 14 former international cricket captains appealed to the government to grant Khan immediate medical treatment for his eye ailment, calling for “humane and dignified detention conditions” for the former Pakistan captain.
The statement was issued on behalf of former captains Michael Atherton, Allan Border, Michael Brearley, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Belinda Clark, Sunil Gavaskar, David Gower, Kim Hughes, Nasser Hussain, Clive Lloyd, Kapil Dev, Steve Waugh and John Wright.
“As fellow cricketers who understand the values of fair play, honor, and respect that transcend the boundary rope, we believe that a person of Imran Khan’s stature deserves to be treated with the dignity and basic human consideration befitting a former national leader and a global sporting icon,” the statement read.
The statement also called for “fair and transparent access” to legal processes for Khan without undue delay or hindrances.
Khan, a former cricket star who served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022 before being removed in a parliamentary vote of no confidence, has been in jail since August 2023 in multiple cases he says are politically motivated. The government denies the allegations.
Khan’s family members are expected to hold a press conference in the evening today outside Adiala jail on his health condition.
