| I see two probabilities: first, they confused Mullah Diesel with Fazlur Rehman Khalil and didn't want a known terrorist tromping around, meeting with who knows whom. Or they might simply find Fazl boring and tedious and not want him under foot, making the point that back home in Peshawar he might be a big man, but in the bright lights of Dubai he's just a fat guy of no consequence. |
âFazl landed at Dubai airport late Sunday night and was on his way to Saudi Arabia from Libya for Umra,â Hafiz Hussain said. Upon his arrival, Fazl asked the authorities to grant him a transit visa for 48 hours, he said, adding that immigration authorities were first willing to grant him the transit visa, but later refused to do so. He said Fazl remained at airport till Monday evening and was later taken to an airport hotel. Hafiz Hussain said he had been trying to contact Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri since Sunday night, but nobody was available. He also said the UAE governmentâs behaviour was condemnable and the MMA would protest against the act. He condemned Sheikh Rashidâs statement about the UAE government blacklisting Fazl. He asked why Sheikh Rashid had not told the FO or taken up the issue with the UAE government if he knew of the blacklisting by Sunday night.
Later, Fazl told Geo television that he wanted to know when and why the UAE government had blacklisted his name, agencies reported. Fazl also said he would sit back and see how the Pakistani government handled the situation. He also said Sheikh Rashid should have clarified why a friendly government had blacklisted him. âThis incident is a result of the Pakistani governmentâs weak foreign policy.â He said that the Pakistani ambassador to the UAE had earlier told him that the issue had been resolved and that he could visit Dubai, but later said the problem had not been resolved.