‘Save us, we have committed nothing wrong’

KARACHI: Whereas over two weeks have passed since the six Pakistanis are adrift in Red Sea and were traced 100 NM from Jeddah by the PNSC oil tanker, the authorities are still pondering over whether the stranded Pakistanis are legal seafarers, to qualify for a rescue.

Pleading for their lives, the six-man stranded crew are beseeching the authorities to rescue and reunite them with their families and decide about the legalities later. ‘Save us. Pull us out of the tug first and hold investigations and verify our documents later, before it is too late,” beseeched Dildar Ahmed Khan, one of the six Pakistanis, speaking via satellite phone with his son Asadullah Khan, when the latter told him of the prying questions by the ports and shipping department. This scribe heard the poignant conversation where the father was trying to assure his son that he has not committed anything unlawful. “We arrived here legally and have committed no wrong. Our passports and CDCs are genuine and in order like all the other documents. The father then desperately asks his son to “go and tell the relevant authorities ‘we have committed nothing wrong’. They must quickly move to save our lives, extricate us from the tug that is bobbing and drifting in any direction the waves propel it. The sea is getting increasingly rough and anything untoward can happen.”

Dildar’s family on the other hand is in utter despair too. Every passing minute is pounding them with more misery and despondency. Without the father managing the house, the financial strains have also grown tremendously. The satellite phone remains the only way to contact the father, but “we cannot afford to call him frequently as a one minute call on the satellite phone, alone costs around Rs3,500,” Asad said piteously. In an emotionally choked voice, Asad expressed his family’s helplessness to The News, saying “the condition is so bad that we are forced to only call ‘Abba’ once to find if he is still hanging on.”

Asad said that of the six Pakistanis, four are the tug’s crew while the remaining two including his father are labourers. “The government has misled the media that they all refused to abandon the vessel as their 8-month salaries remain unpaid,” he claimed. “This is totally wrong and illogical as nobody will choose money over lives when the choppy sea waters are throwing the boat here and there.” Fighting back his tears, Asad quoted his father as telling him that he and other stranded Pakistanis pleaded with the PNSC crew that provided them food and water and to take them along, but they refused. “The PNSC crew told them that they only have orders to provide foodstuff but cannot take them aboard,” Asad quoted his father as being told by the PNSC crew.

“Hang our family to death, if my father if found guilty of committing something illegal upon his return, but for God’s sakes at least rescue him and other stranded Pakistanis,” the distraught son pleaded with his hands folded and added “we are three brothers and two of them are government employees. What else is needed to prove my father’s nationality.”