ON Feb 14 the president of Pakistan did take notice of the issue of 700 Pakistanis stranded in Saudi Arabia, but things have not moved any further. In fact, we are almost 900 Pakistanis suffering for the last one year.

A Riyadh-based Turkish company, MAPA Construction, had hired all of these Pakistanis through different recruiting agencies at the end of 2011.

We got these visas against hefty amount. When we visited the office of the company, we came to know that there were no such jobs for us.

However, we were issued ‘iqamas’ and allowed to work in other companies, as the company did not have enough work at that time.

The company manager told us the the “company will help us whenever we need it”.

When we went back to the company to get a NOC, we were informed that our visas were fake. The company blamed its former manager and some other people and sent them to jail.

Since then we are not allowed to work, nor are we allowed to exit and re-enter. Thus we in a very bad situation.

We are not guilty, and those who misled us are behind bars. We are thus stuck in Saudi for nothing for the last one year.

We need your help; we want you to please bring this issue to the notice of the authorities concerned.

There is a need to discuss this issue with the Saudi royal family and the Turkish embassy.

We appeal to the chief justice and all political parties to raise the issue with the Saudi government in order to transfer our visas to some other companies or to get a proper final exit so that we can go back to some other companies in Saudi Arabia.

Stranded Pakistanis. MUNIR KHAN and 14 OTHERS Riyadh