Pakistan - Senate opp blasts Saudi govt over ‘ill treatment’ of pilgrims’ bodies

 Legislators say Pakistan’s government failed to facilitate those who wanted to bring bodies of their loved ones back.

The opposition legislators in Upper House of parliament on Monday criticised the government for ‘defending the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over mismanagement during Hajj that resulted into death of over a thousand pilgrims in Mina’.

The legislators noted that pictures and videos circulating on social media showed ill treatment of the bodies of martyred pilgrims by the Saudi government. They said such an attitude was not acceptable in any religion. Families of some of the deceased pilgrims wanted to bring bodies to Pakistan but government did not facilitate them, they remarked.

PTI Senator Numan Wazir proposed to take NADRA help in identifying the unidentified bodies of Pakistani pilgrims in Saudi Arabia. Another PTI Senator, Mohsin Aziz, said disrespect was shown to the bodies of the martyred pilgrims. PPP Senator Farhatullah Baber suggested that Pakistan should take up the issue with Saudi government and seek assurance that such type of incidents will not be allowed to happen in future. PPP’s Senator Sehar Kamran claimed that neither Hajj Mission nor Pakistani embassy provided any sort of help to the relatives of the missing pilgrims. Senator Usman Kakar strongly criticised Saudi government over their ‘failure to facilitate pilgrims despite earning billions of dollars during the Hajj season’.

Brig (R) John Kenneth Williams said there was no proper reporting on part of government when the incident occurred while the government function was performed by the media. The government of Pakistan totally failed to establish an information centre in this regard.

State Minister for Religious Affairs Pir Aminul Hasnat briefed the House about details of Mina incident. He said 76 Pakistanis have so far been confirmed dead while about 60 pilgrims are missing. He said seven Pakistani pilgrims are under treatment in different Saudi hospitals. When the incident occurred, the minister said, around two dozen Pakistani volunteers started rescue works but later they were barred by the Saudi authorities. No information has been received regarding missing pilgrims and the government of Pakistan is waiting for any response from the Saudi government, the minister said, and assured that every sort of help and facilitation would be provided to pilgrims.

Later during the session, Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani announced his ruling regarding the resignations of MQM members. In his ruling, Rabbani added references from the law and the constitution to justify his act of not accepting the resignations the MQM members had submitted on Aug 12.