Articles of the year 2015
Published on April 14th 2015
The Saudi Government passed a law 8 years ago approx June 2006, forbidding the issuance of an Umra visa to any Pakistani male under the age of 40. This law discriminates against Pakistanis as it is specific only to Pakistanis. I wrote a piece on this in the Nation titled the Indignity of labour.
I had stated, that the twin tower bombers were Saudi, Osama bin Laden was Saudi, Wahabis were Saudi, Al-Qaeda was Saudi.
A week after this article appeared I was invited by a friend in Islamabad to dinner, and the only other guest was none other than the then Saudi Ambassador to Islamabad.
Who launched a furious tirade at me the minute he walked in, threatening to sue me for whatever I was worth. After he had calmed down, I asked him which of my accusations was a lie. He replied that my comments were true, but the Saudis were facing severe problems with our overstaying ( illegal ) Pakistanis. To which I replied, please send them back. ‘ O we can’t do that’ . I then said ‘ you have a very good intelligence service, and know where each illegal is located.’ ‘ send them back’ it was then obvious that the Saudis were protecting their Saudi contractors, who were too powerful to ignore, with many princes amongst them.
This is but a short introduction to the ongoing tragic condition of our overseas labour, and the inaction of our government to cope or to offer any protection to the,. On the contrary the govt officers are all part of the picking of pieces from the fruits of his labour, earned in subhuman conditions. Our Prime Minister lived in luxury while in exile in Saudi Arabia, never once did he enquire of the conditions of his fellow Pakistanis.
Our leadership considers themselves a race apart from the rest of us. And not bound by the rules that apply to us.
It has come as a delight to the working class Pakistanis, that the Arabs are now appealing to Pakistanis for help, to defend the holy shrines against an invasion from the Yemenis. Also Muslims, also downtrodden. The government should carefully examine the factors involved and should not allow the debt of gratitude owed by the Sharif family, to influence their decision, which has many countries involved. The pressure bearing down on Nawaz Sharif must be resisted, and the combatants should be brought to the negotiations (dragged) if need be. We may be a nuclear power, but it is time we asserted our position, away form our usual begging position.
The Saudis and Emiratis must realize the damage they have done to Pakistan in their funding of Jihad on our soil. The suicide bombers are another gift to us from the Saudi largesse. How is it that not one Suicide bombing has taken place in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or any other place in the region.
The damage to Pakistan has been immense, not the least being the support extended to the upkeep of our corrupt leadership that has damaged Pakistan more than any foreign invader could. The Sharifs and Zardaris combined have destroyed this country encouraging corruption to be rooted deeper into the system, carefully abbetted and aided by the Arabs.
The insulting remarks by the Emirati dy foreign minister should be taken seriously, and examined in the light of the effect on the plastic island that is Dubai.
If, even one suicider was to make his way back into the Emirates, the resultant exodus would make the glamorous
new glass skyscraper look like a horror film. The inhabitants, value serenity and peace above all. This can easily evaporate. We have suffered at the hands of terrorism, and well know the disastrous
effects of terrorism on a nation.
The Emiratis should heed the saying of people who live in beautiful glass houses should look out for stones.
Coming back to our leadership, it is disgraceful that our leadership has not cared for our overseas workers, happily partaking of the benefits passed on to us, without any appreciation of their contribution to our nation. The many problems being faced by our workers have never been addressed. Nor they will be unless there is a radical change in the thinking of the leaders, or a change of the leadership itself.
The threat to the Pakistani investments is welcome, because it is illegal money anyway, and should be seized and sent back to our Nation. All that money is earnings from corruption, and belongs rightfully to the people. It is time that the people of Pakistan rise up, and sweep these parasites from amongst us. We must be free of them. Only then can there be progress.