In bittersweet farewell, Pakistani man to leave Saudi Arabia after 40 years

KARACHI: Forty years ago, a young man with a heavy heart stepped off a Saudi Airlines plane in Riyadh, after leaving behind a wife and son in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore. 
Muhammad Hafeez was a stranger in a new country, and for the first few days of those early months of 1979, he missed everything about home- his son who had just taken his first steps, the street where they lived, even the warm jalebis of Lahore’s famous food markets.
But when he found work as a plumber foreman for a water supply company, Hafeez said, it was as though he’d found a new family.
“Within weeks, I realized I had come to my second home,” Hafeez told Arab News via telephone from the town of Al Aflaj in Saudi Arabia, after his recent resignation from his place of work after four decades, and as he prepares to finally return to Pakistan.

Some days ago, his colleagues arranged a farewell party for Hafeez, presenting him with shields of acknowledgment and parting gifts. 
For Hafeez, it was a bittersweet moment. He was grateful for the love and respect he received, he said, but he felt heartbroken to be leaving behind the people who had allowed a homesick young foreigner to feel like an integral part of their community for so many years.
“Not once in these 40 long years did they (Saudi colleagues) make me feel like I was a stranger or that I was not one among them. I was never treated like a foreigner,” he said, and added that the values of brotherhood in Saudi society were the best gift he was taking home with him.
“I cannot express my feelings in words. The honor they gave me will be always remembered,” he said.

From just starting out, to leading a group of 30 workers at the time of his resignation, his colleagues describe Hafeez as being the “backbone” of the company and had discouraged him from resigning, pushing him to continue for a few more years.
But with the death of his beloved wife seven years ago in Pakistan, Hafeez, now 67, said he wanted to spend the rest of his life close to his children and grandchildren in Lahore- the now unfamiliar home he had left as a scared but hopeful 27 year old.

At present, Saudi Arabia hosts over a million Pakistani expats working in different fields and sending remittances back home.
“If you perform your duties with honesty, the Saudis don’t want you to go back, even after 40 years,” Hafeez said with a laugh.
“I urge all Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia to follow the local rules, to abide by Saudi law and perform their duties with honesty. You will never experience a country in the world like Saudi Arabia,” he said.
Already, Hafeez said, he has been visited at his home by all his colleagues, even those senior to him, for difficult and emotional goodbyes.

In the last four decades, Hafeez has seen the evolution and transformation of Saudi society, and said he feels the country is reaching new heights under the leadership of King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, and credits their continued progress with the prayers of so many people earning their livelihoods “with respect and dignity” in Saudi Arabia.
“There are hundreds of thousands like me who love this country and will not hesitate to render our lives for it,” he said.
“My responsibilities here are now fulfilled,” he continued, his voice breaking over the phone. 
“I am thankful to my Saudi friends for this beautiful life, and I leave them now an old man, with all my prayers.”