ISLAMABAD: The For­e­i­­gn Affairs Committee of the Senate was on Thursday briefed on Indian Prime Mi­­nister Narendra Modi’s rec­ent foreign visits as well as the visit to Pakistan of John McCain, the chairman of the US Senate Com­mittee on Armed Services.

The meeting, chaired by Senator Nuzhat Sadiq, was attended among others by Senators Karim Khawaja, Tahir Mashhadi, Haji Momin Khan Afridi and Farhatullah Babar.

At the outset of the meeting, Senator Babar raised the issue of Haji Abdul Ghafoor, a Pakistani who went missing in Madina last year following an altercation with local police. He still remains missing.

“Failure to pursue this case will only reinforce the perception that the state is least bothered about its own citizens in foreign lands,” Mr Babar said.

Senate committee briefed on Modi’s foreign visits

“Pakistanis, who once used to go missing inside the country, are now getting disappeared in foreign lands as well.”

The senator said the Saudi authorities should be req­ue­sted to allow Pakistani investigators to assist in the investigations going on in the case. Even if the Saudi government declined the request it would get the message that Pakistan would not let such cases to go unnoticed.

As per the official acco­u­nt, Haji Ghafoor, who arri­ved in Madina on August 18 last year and stayed at a local hotel, went missing the next day.

Two officials of the Pakistan House in Madina testified that an official of a local company called Adilla informed them at 2am on August 20 that a Pakistani Haji had had an altercation with the Mobile Police near Gate 20 of the holy mosque and that he might be released soon. Haji Ghafoor was subsequently released and was seen in the lobby of his hotel with other Hajis.

This information, Senator Babar said, had provided a lead in tracing the missing Haji. However, both the FO and Saudi authorities were not taking this into account while spinning stories about how much time and effort had been spent in tracing Mr Ghafoor.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2017