LAHORE: Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, President Punjab PPP, has expressed deep condolences and sympathies on behalf of the PPP Punjab and on his own behalf to the bereaved families who had lost their fathers, mothers, brothers or close relatives in the tragedy in Mina, Saudi Arabia. He prayed for the eternal peace for the departed souls and fortitude to the families to bear this irreparable loss in a statement issued from here today.
Hundreds of Haj pilgrims hailing from Pakistan are still missing and their families are in acute agony but the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Pakistan Haj Directorate and our Embassy in Saudi Arabia are clueless about their whereabouts, he regretted deeply.
He added that the plight of the people multiplied with the shocking story of the British newspaper the other day in which it was reported that the maximum number of pilgrims who embraced martyrdom in the stampede in Mina were from Pakistan.
He expressed his displeasure over the relevant government functionaries for not immediately getting in touch with the Saudi Authorities in order to find out the exact scale of tragedy that had fallen on the Pakistani pilgrims there.
He said that the tragedy of appalling proportion undoubtedly had struck there due to the circumstances beyond control of any one but the government of Pakistan’s slackness in finding out the missing pilgrims was unforgiving in the face of the torture the families back home were undergoing at present.
He urged the Minister for Religious Affairs that he should immediately go to Saudi Arabia if he had not already left and to expedite the operation of finding the injured or killed Pakistani nationals in Saudi Arabia instead of contended with issuing statements devoid of facts.
INP/AH/AJ
