ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Thursday sought explanation from the government on the death of a Pakistani t
ransgender allegedly by police in
Saudi Arabia early this month.
Raising it on a point of pubic importance, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said the t
ransgender belonged to Swat and his family was agitating against the death. He said that although reports had surfaced some days ago but he
did not raise it and was waiting for more information.
He said that it was a serious matter involving the basic right to life of Pakistani nationals and the least the government should do is to formally take it up with
Saudi authorities and find out the facts.
“Not taking notice of the reports amounts to abdication of responsibility towards our nationals in foreign lands,” he said and called for referring the matter to the Human Rights
Committee or Foreign Affairs
Committee of the Senate.
He said that according to reports initially 35 Pakistani t
ransgender people had been arrested late last month out of which 29 were released while the rest are still in jail.
He said, “While one respected the sovereign right of a foreign government to uphold its laws it was also our responsibility to take up the matter with the
Saudi government and ensure that a Pakistani was not deprived of life unlawfully and with impunity.”
Raza Rabbani said the verbatim record of the speech of the senator needs to be sent to the Foreign Office with directions to clarify the issue in the Senate on Tuesday.
Senator Babar also questioned the closure of the Pak-Afghan border f
or the past several weeks. He said that apart from being illogical it was now hurting the economic interests of traders and businessmen of KP.
He said that it
did not stand to reason that the borders had been closed because terrorists were infiltrating through the Torkham border.
He said that it was ironic that the border was sealed just when the prime minister was pleading connectivity and trade at the ECO Summit in Islamabad.
“It only shows serious disconnect somewhere. We may claim state institutions being on ‘same page’ but they do not appear to be in the same book, let alone being on the same page and called for revisiting Afghani policy.”
