UAE deportations issue referred to Senate panel

Responding to a calling attention notice moved by upper house opposition leader Raja Nasir Abbas, Samina Mumtaz Zehri and Azam Swati on the issue, the minister said those deported included individuals involved in various criminal cases, while some had been sent back under administrative actions taken by the UAE authorities. These deportations, he continued, could not be linked to any discriminatory policy against Pakistani nationals, noting that over two million Pakistanis were residing in the UAE. He said the UAE was a sovereign country and had its own rules under which it had taken certain administrative measures following the Iran-US conflict. The minister described reports about Pakistanis’ victimisation in the UAE as “mala fide propaganda”. Earlier, Raja Nasir Abbas raised the issue, claiming that many Pakistanis had been deported from the UAE and that their assets and money were still lying in banks. He further maintained that Pakistanis were being victimised in the Gulf state and many of them had been put in jail. He claimed to have a list of some 2,000 Pakis­tanis who had allegedly been deported forcibly. Senator Sherry Rehman, who was presiding over the sitting, referred the matter to the standing committee on foreign affairs. Terming it a “sensitive matter”, she suggested taking up the issue in an in-camera meeting. In response to a question, the Senate was informed through a written reply that the federal government had paid more than Rs6