ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday disclosed that a total number of 7,208 Pakistani prisoners have been released from prisons in Saudi Arabia from 2019-2024.
During his visit to Pakistan in 2019, the Saudi crown prince ordered the release of 2,107 Pakistanis jailed in Saudi Arabia for various crimes in response to a request from the then Pakistan government.
Dar shared the data of Pakistanis freed from Saudi jails in a written response to Senator Dr. Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur, who inquired about the progress on the release of those prisoners.
Dar, who also serves as Pakistan’s deputy prime minister, shared that 2,907 Pakistani prisoners under the consular jurisdiction of the Pakistan Embassy in Riyadh were released from 2019-2024. Out of the remaining 7,208 prisoners, 4,301 Pakistanis under the consular jurisdiction of the Consulate General Jeddah were released from Saudi prisons from 2019-2024.
“It is, however, hard to bifurcate/differentiate the number of the prisoners who have been able to avail this clemency under this announcement due to continuous inflow as well as outflow of the prisoners,” the minister said.
Taimur then inquired as to how many Pakistanis were presently imprisoned in foreign jails, based on information provided by Pakistan’s diplomatic missions.
“According to the current data, approximately 23,456 Pakistani nationals are imprisoned in various countries worldwide,” Dar responded.
“The largest concentrations are in the Gulf region, particularly in Saudi Arabia (12,156) and UAE (5292).”
Dar said Pakistan’s foreign ministry is developing a “comprehensive consular policy” through stakeholder consultations to provide protection to its nationals imprisoned abroad.
He said that while this policy is being formulated, Pakistan continues to protect its citizens abroad through international frameworks already in place, such as consular protection mentioned in Article 36 (c) of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963.
“Under this framework, our consular officers: visit Pakistani nationals in prison or 7 detention, converse and correspond with detained nationals and arrange legal representation for them,” the minister said.
