Lahore: A Pakistani chartered accountant, who was arrested, tortured and allegedly molested by Abu Dhabi prisons’ officials, still strives for justice while Pakistan’s Government seems disinterested in his case.
Muhammad Saad, 26, a Pakistani National, worked as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers Pakistan and later joined Indian consultancy firm Tech Mahindra as Senior Oracle EPM Consultant in Abu Dhabi.
Saad told Truth Tracker that he resigned from the job after he got an MBA admission offer from American University in Dubai. On March 13, 2019, when he was going to perform Ummrah from Abu Dhabi, police arrested him without showing any warrant or telling any reason. He was detained in a nearby police station where police took all of his belongings and when he requested for a consular access, he was denied.
“They shifted me to a remote Abu Dhabi Madinat Zayed Prisoner Facility next day where I was kept in detention for 7 days where officials harassed me psychologically and sexually and tried to rape me.”
Later, Saad was shifted to Abu Dhabi’s Al Shahama Prisoner Facility on March 20, 2019 when he thought that it might be a relief for him. But it turned out into a nightmare.
“I was a horrible place where they detained me for 13 days and did whatever they could to me. Police officials ferociously and brutally tortured sexually abused me in the male toilets repeatedly on multiple occasions,” alleges Saad.
He was eventually put on the deportation list and deported back on April 3, 2019 to Pakistan. He was not allowed to report the offence to the UAE authorities.
After reaching home, Saad opted for a detailed medical examination. Several different tests were carried out and the reports, available with Truth Tracker, say that he suffers a nerve damage, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) neurological disorders.
Other than surviving with sleep disorder, a continuous sense of fear, Saad lost his career and future. Saad addressed a news conference at Lahore Press Club but mainstream media did not cover him. He sent several applications to Pakistan’s human rights, overseas Pakistani and foreign ministers but his request fell on deaf ears.
Saad also sent e-mails to the rulers of UAE but got no response. He tried to reach UAE’s ambassador in Pakistan but failed. Later, he turned to human rights activists and reported the matter to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and other bodies but they also could not make a difference.
Truth Tracker repeatedly tried to reach the UAE diplomats in Islamabad via telephone but nobody attends the phone numbers given at the UAE Embassy’s website. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
UAE and Pakistan enjoy very strong ties and a large number of Pakistanis work there. A few months ago, when Pakistan was struggling to get money for international payments and strengthening its reserves, the UAE had granted three billion dollars’ loan to Pakistan.
Senior Journalist and analyst Mubasher Bukhari said, “Pakistan will not take up this case with UAE boldly because of economic and national reasons. For Pakistani authorities, this kind of brutality is a routine issue as this kind of incidents takes place here every second day and culprit go unpunished.”
