Saudi crown prince frees 2,000 Pakistanis and signs off £15bn deal with Islamabad

SAUDI ARABIA has agreed to free more than 2,000 Pakistani prisoners as the kingdom’s crown prince continued a visit to its nuclear-armed ally.

Mohammed bin Salman promised to deliver “whatever we can do” for Pakistanis living in his country after a personal plea from Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan.

The mass amnesty followed the signing of Saudi investment deals worth more than $20billion (£15.4billion).

The crown prince’s visit is seen as sealing the deepening ties between the two nations at a time when Mr Khan’s government faces a painful balance of payments crisis.

Cash injections from Riyadh and the United Arab Emirates have kept Pakistan’s economy afloat in recent months, and allowed Mr Khan to delay a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

The release of Pakistani petty criminals is seen as a political gift to Mr Khan. Millions of Pakistanis work in the Gulf and their wages form a critical source of foreign currency for Pakistan’s economy.

The fate of the thousands who are locked up across the Middle East is a sensitive issue in Pakistan, where there is a perception that the prisoners are mostly poor labourers who have no legal recourse.

Mr Khan reportedly raised the issue on Sunday night, asking the prince to look into the hardships of Pakistani labourers in the kingdom and to “look upon them as your own people”.

Yesterday, Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s information minister, announced: “His Royal Highness the crown prince of KSA [Kingdom of Saudia Arabia] Mohammed bin Salman has ordered the immediate release of 2,107 Pakistani prisoners from Saudi jails.”

The Islamabad visit was the first leg of a wider Asia trip for the prince, who was due to arrive in Delhi last night.