 "A beggar sits on the streets of Lahore. A report reveals that an increasing number of Pakistani nationals arriving in the Saudi Arabia for hajj, engage in begging activities. Representational image/Reuters")
Saudi Arabia has a stern warning to Pakistan. And it’s not over weapons or some geopolitical reason, but about beggars.
Confused? We explain.
Saudi authorities have expressed their concerns to Islamabad about the growing rate of beggars entering the Kingdom under the guise of religious pilgrimage. On Tuesday, the Kingdom told Pakistan that if the situation wasn’t controlled, it would negatively affect the country’s Umrah and Hajj pilgrims.
In response, Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs is introducing a ‘Umrah Act’, which will regulate travel agencies facilitating these religious trips and bringing them under legal purview.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that Saudi has expressed concern over the matter. Even last year, the Kingdom had warned Islamabad about the rising number of beggars that had entered Saudi Arabia during the Hajj pilgrimage.
What happened?
According to a report in Dawn, as many as 90 per cent of beggars arrested in foreign countries belong to Pakistan.
The Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis was told that of all the people leaving the country – beggars are departing the most.
Overseas Ministry Secretary Zulfikar Haider made this disclosure during a discussion in the Senate panel on the issue of skilled and unskilled labour leaving the country.
Haider said around three million Pakistanis are in Saudi Arabia, 1.5 million Pakistanis are in the UAE, while 0.2 million were in Qatar.
Haider told the committee many beggars exploit pilgrim visas to travel to Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq.
Once they reach there, they take up begging.
“Beggars are leaving Pakistan en masse, often traveling by boatloads, and then exploiting Umrah and visit visas to beg from pilgrims abroad," Haider was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune.
Haider added that a ‘significant number of pickpockets’ have been arrested at holy sites including the Grand Mosque at Mecca.
These people were identified as Pakistani nationals.
India Today quoted Pakistan’s overseas secretary Zeeshan Khanzada as saying during the hearing that a ‘substantial number’ of the 10 million Pakistani citizens abroad are involved in begging.
Saudi Arabia slams Pakistan
Earlier too, Saudi officials had told Pakistan to take care while choosing candidates for its Hajj quota, as per News18.
Saudi Arabia said 90 per cent of beggars arrested are from Pakistan.
These individuals are on Umrah visas.
Saudi Arabia also took Pakistan’s overseas secretary Zeeshan Khanzada to task for “sending repeat offenders”.
Saudi Arabia told Pakistan “our prisons are full of your prisoners.”
GeoTV quoted Khanzada as Iraq and Saudi ambassadors complaining that their prisons are overflowing because of Pakistani beggars.
It also informed officials that all the pickpockets near the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca are also from Pakistan.
Sources told News18 Saudi Arabia is distressed at the fact that such persons are being granted Umrah visas.
They say such individuals are not granted invites and employment letters because they are not relied upon as skilled labours.
Instead, Saudi employers usually rely on workers from India and Bangladesh.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December had extended its visa ban on visitors from Pakistan.
The ban was extended to 24 cities from the previous figure of 22.
‘India reached Moon, we stumble’
Haider also said the movement of a large number of beggars has spurred “human trafficking”.
Meanwhile, Haider said that Japan has now emerged as a new destination for such visitors, according to Dawn.
Haider emphasized Pakistan’s historical role in exporting skilled labour.
He and expressed optimism that the country’s foreign remittances would increase when professionals went abroad.
He further said that Saudi Arabia now preferred skilled labour over untrained individuals, according to Dawn.
Hasan also noted that as many as 50,000 engineers in Pakistan were unemployed.
“India has reached the Moon, while we stumble every day,” the senator added.
Last August, Pakistan’s self-exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had said that his country is begging money from the world while India has reached the Moon and hosted the G20 summit.
Sharif blamed Pakistan’s economic woes on its former generals and judges.
Pakistan’s economy has been in a free fall mode for the last many years, bringing untold pressure on the poor masses in the form of unchecked double-digit inflation.
“Today Pakistan’s prime minister goes country to country to beg for funds while India has reached the Moon and is holding G20 meetings. Why Pakistan couldn’t achieve the feats India did. Who is responsible for this here?” Sharif asked while addressing a party meeting in Lahore from London via video link on Monday evening.
The 73-year-old supreme leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party further said that India had followed the economic reforms initiated by his government in 1990.
“When Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the prime minister of India, it had only a billion dollars in kitty but now India’s foreign exchange reserves have risen up to $600 billion,” he said.
The IMF in July transferred $1.2 billion to cash-strapped Pakistan, part of the $3 billion bailout programme for nine months to support the government’s efforts to stabilise the country’s ailing economy.
With inputs from agencies