Six Saudi students in Pakistan requested the Embassy in Islamabad Monday to transfer them to different countries due to the current security situation, said Saudi Cultural Attaché in Islamabad Abdulhamid Al-Fatah. Speaking by phone from Islamabad, Al-Fatah said that the Saudi cultural mission has received instructions from the Ministry of Higher Education to ease transfer procedures of students to countries of their own choice. The mission, however, has not instructed the students to leave Pakistan as the security situation has started to improve, he added. The mission sponsors and follows up 145 students in different Pakistani cities including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi. The Saudi Consulate in Karachi is scheduled to hold a meeting Tuesday to discuss the safety of Saudi students in Pakistan, said communication officer at the consulate Faisal Asiri. The embassy has decided to keep the Saudi schools in Islamabad and Lahore closed until further notice. Some Saudi students said that their work and study program situation would not allow them to leave the country as many of them are either accompanying their working fathers at the embassy or Saudi schools or approaching their graduation date. Abdullah Al-Dosari, a student who is doing his final year in a medical college, said, “We have been used to political turbulence in Pakistan and I cannot go shopping now for a new admission anywhere else.” Another medical student in his fourth year Naif Al-Harbi said they have been following security instructions from the embassy and he would find it hard to look for college admission outside Pakistan as he has progressed in the program.
