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
Sharif departs for Austria on first official visit by Pakistani PM in over 30 years
- Shehbaz Sharif leads high-level delegation to Austria on two-day visit, says Pakistan’s foreign office
- Sharif to meet Austrian counterpart, chair Pakistan–Austria Business Forum meeting during visit
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif departed for Vienna on Sunday for a two-day visit to review bilateral ties, his office said in a statement, marking the first official visit by a Pakistani premier to the country in over three decades.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesperson said that Sharif is undertaking the visit at Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker’s invitation. Sharif will lead a high-level delegation comprising the deputy premier and information minister from the Feb. 15-16 visit.
The foreign office said Sharif’s visit marks 70 years since diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Austria were established.
“This visit by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to Vienna marks the first visit by a Pakistani Prime Minister to Austria in over three decades, the last having been undertaken by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1992,” the statement said.
Sharif will hold bilateral talks with his Austrian counterpart, during which the two leaders will take stock of the entire gamut of bilateral relations.
“The prime minister will also chair a meeting of the Pakistan–Austria Business Forum, which is being organized by the Austrian Economic Chamber (WKO),” the foreign office said. “He will also visit multilateral organizations.”
According to Pakistan’s foreign ministry, Islamabad and Vienna enjoy cooperation in the domains of trade, economy, culture and education.
It said Sharif’s visit to Vienna will establish new dimensions to the Pakistan-Austria relations.
