ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Thursday sought explanation from the government on the death of a Pakistani transgender allegedly by police in Saudi Arabia early this month.
Raising it on a point of pubic importance, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said the transgender 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 transgender 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 for 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.”
