Mahbooba Ismail Saifullah Marghalani, an old, ailing Saudi woman of Afghan origin, who has admitted to King Fahd General Hospital, Jeddah, wishes to meet with her only daughter before she breathes her last. However, this appears to be a distant dream as her daughter is considered ‘an alien' in Pakistan, thereby preventing her from coming to the Kingdom. “I just want to see my daughter, Mastoora Habibullah, one last time before I die. The authorities in Pakistan are not renewing her passport,” said Marghalani, who is suffering from gangrene - a condition that involves the death and decay of tissue. Because Marghalani is suffering from diabetes, all her toes had to be amputed and doctors fear that there may be a need to amputate her right leg as well. “Doctors say that healing is difficult in diabetic people suffering from gangrene. I have no one to look after me except my Pakistani granddaughter Ayesha (Mastoora's daughter), who is married and is working here. As a married working woman, she has many responsibilities besides me,” said Marghalani. Years back, Marghalani migrated to Saudi Arabia from Afghanistan with her three children and husband, who later married his brother's widow and divorced Marghalani without providing for her, while also taking away the children (one daughter, Mastoora, and two sons, Habib and Hameed). From that time, life became a bed of thorns for Marghalani. She survived by selling food in Madina and lived with some of her ‘family members'. She never had any support from her family and her ex-husband. “My children grew up without their mother's love and care. Sadly, their father made them beg for food in Taif,” she said. However, when Mastoora turned 14, her father married her off to a Pakistani man. After her marriage, Mastoora used to visit her mother, which Marghalani described as “happy moments for both the mother and daughter.” “When all of my children were grown-ups, I got married to a Saudi national, Abdul Malik Mirza Andijani. Though I could not have any children with him, he was a very good man,” she said. After her second marriage, Marghalani's life was took a turn for the better. Financial problems no longer existed and she acquired Saudi nationality. “My ex-husband destroyed most of the documents that could prove the relationship between me and my children,” she said. Later, Marghalani was able to meet with her children. “My daughter had to travel to Pakistan for her children's education. During her absence, my beloved (second) husband died leaving me alone to struggle again,” she said. Marghalani's source of income after her second husband's death was his pension allowance. However, she said, her loneliness made life unbearable. “Many people cheated me by taking my money without my knowledge as I cannot read and write,” she said. Ayesha, Marghalani's granddaughter (and Mastoora's daughter), and her husband visit Marghalani everyday at the hospital. “She (Marghalani) is suffering from cardiac problems as well, and cries a lot for her daughter. She is always asking about her daughter and insists that she wants to see her before she dies,” said Aysha. Aysha said her mother, Mastoora, who married a Pakistani national and has a Pakistani Passport, was not able to come to Saudi Arabia. “The Pakistani authorities say that my mother is not a Pakistani and is a Saudi because her mother (Marghalani) is a Saudi. She doesn't have any documents as proof because her father destroyed them all. He wanted to wipe out any proof of his link with Marghalani so that she would not be able to take back her children after divorce.” “A Pakistani passport was issued to my mother in 1982 by the Pakistan Consulate in Jeddah. It was renewed several times as she travelled to Pakistan and other countries. After 2006, when her passport expired, the authorities refused to renew it and tagged her case ‘alien',” said Ayesha. “Now, on the basis of what nationality and passport should my mother come to the Kingdom to visit my grandmother one last time?” asked Aysha. Dr. Mohammad Faisal, acting Consul General of Pakistan in Jeddah, said that since Mastoora's first passport was issued in Jeddah, he would send her documents to Islamabad and request an inquiry into the matter, within the jurisdiction of the rules and regulations. “If she deserves Pakistani nationality, she will be granted it. Justice will never be denied to her. I will do my best to raise the issue (with the concerned authorities) and act according to the rules,” he said. “If her passport was issued at the Pakistani Consulate in Jeddah, then that must have happened on the basis of some documents and interviews in which she might have shown inclination (for acquiring the passport). However, with a detailed inquiry later in Pakistan, they may not have been able to renew her passport,” said Faisal. Citing historical facts, Faisal said that since 1979 – after the start of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan – there was a threefold increase in the number of Afghan refugees arriving in Pakistan in – as the country started accepting Afghani immigrants for the sake of burden-sharing. “It is believed that some refugees succeeded in acquiring Pakistani passports,” he said.
