Islamabad [Pakistan], May 19 (ANI): Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the country's National Assembly that over 23,000 Pakistanis are behind bars in several countries across the world on the account of far and wide ranging crimes, Dawn reported on Monday.

According to Dawn, as many as 23,456 Pakistanis are currently behind bars overseas, with the largest number of inmates, 12,156, being held in Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed Pakistan's National Assembly.

The statement was made during the lower house's question hour. Dawn reported that in a written reply, the ministry added that the United Arab Emirates holds the second highest number of Pakistani inmates, totalling 5,292.

It was reported that of the 400 Pakistanis imprisoned in China, most of them were convicted over the cases of drug smuggling, rape, robbery, murder, and counterfeit currency cases.

Dawn reported that 450 Pakistanis imprisoned in Bahrain were convicted of drug trafficking, possession of drugs and fraud. Afghanistan had convicted 88 Pakistanis of overstay and security-related offences.

In other countries of West Asia, the track record of Pakistanis continued to remain poor as in Qatar, 338 Pakistanis were sentenced for theft, murder, narcotics, money laundering, rape, and financial frauds, while Oman convicted 309 in drug trafficking, murder, robbery, and sexual assault cases.

Dawn said that Malaysia convicted 255 Pakistanis for similar offences besides illegal entry.

The matters continued to remain worse across several European countries.

Of the European nations, Austria shared that Pakistanis were held for cases of illegal entry, human and drug trafficking and murder, besides sexual harassment, were convicted , however the number was not provided.

Dawn said that while Norway did not share details of charges against three Pakistanis detained, Finland had convicted two Pakistanis but did not share details of the offences.

France and Germany had convicted 168 and 94 Pakistanis respectively.

Other countries where Pakistanis were imprisoned included nine in Canada, 27 in Denmark.

In Azerbaijan, 11 out of 16 prisoners were sentenced for murder, human and drug trafficking, illegal entry, while five were under trial. Dawn added that in Turkiye, 147 prisoners were convicted and 161 were under trial for various offences, such as drug and human trafficking, sexual assault, and child abuse. (ANI)