DUBAI: Pakistan’s diplomatic mission in the United Arab Emirates could not provide details on a female national who mysteriously disappeared in Dubai recently, telling Arab News on Saturday that it was not contacted by the husband of the woman.
Qurat-ul-Ain went missing on November 9, making her husband, Mukhtar Ali, speculate that she could have been upset about moving back to Pakistan.
50-year-old Ali lodged a missing person’s report with the Dubai Police, though he told Arab News he had not heard anything positive from them so far.
“I saw Ainy on 9th November before leaving for work in the morning,” he said. “When I came back at six in the evening, she did not open the door. I got worried since she hardly ever went anywhere,” said Ali, who lives in a busy residential neighborhood in Dubai.
He told Arab News that he was not carrying his apartment’s key and had to ask the building’s security to open the door.
“I noticed that the morning dishes were still lying on the table, nothing had been cooked for the day, her mobile phone was also at home, and she was missing,” he continued.
Ali said he called up his friends and family, looked around the neighborhood, but could not find his wife. “I could only lodge a missing person’s report after 24 hours which I did. Police have taken her hairbrush with them,” he added.
Asked about the case, the consul general of Pakistan in the UAE, Ahmed Amjad Ali, told Arab News: “We only get involved with such cases when they are brought to us with the proof of a police report and a passport copy.”
Qurat-ul-Ain’s husband said he did not approach the Pakistani diplomatic mission in Dubai since he thought that his wife would return soon.
However, the couple’s 21-year-old son, Umaid Ali, who moved to the United States last year after finishing his education in the UAE, posted his mother’s picture and details on social media on November 11 and asked for help.
“Please help find my mom who has been missing for the last two days. All of us are really worried,” he said in a post.
The Pakistani family belongs to Karachi and has been living in the UAE since 1999.
Due to the recent financial crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the family had decided that Qurat-ul-Ain, 41, would move back to Pakistan, and she had to catch a flight on November 16.
“She was upset because I had canceled her visa, and she had to fly back on November 16,” her husband, who works at DnataTravels, said. “I did not imagine she would leave home like this.”
He said Qurat-ul-Ain missed her son.
“She was in mental stress for quite some time, and the present situation only worsened the situation,” he added.
“It is possible that she is with someone because a single woman would have been located on the streets by now. I am worried because she did not have any money. She hardly had AED100 with her.”