DUBAI The Consulate General of India (CGI) in Dubai has come forward to help Zainab Fawad, 44, whose plight was first reported by XPRESS in November 2016.
They have written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Sharjah office, requesting them to repatriate Zainab and her two children to India on humanitarian grounds.
In an email dated May 7, the CGI has also sought the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s help to track down and arrest Zainab’s Pakistani husband, F.D., who has reportedly remarried and is believed to be living in Dubai.
Passport stuck
Zainab cannot exit the country as her passport is stuck in a Sharjah Court since 2013 when she pledged it to secure the release of her husband in a defamation case.
Zainab got divorced from F.D. and is now staying in Dubai with her five-year-old twin boys Muzammil and Mustafa.
The kids, both Indian passport holders, were living illegally in Pakistan for nearly three years and Zainab had lost all hope of ever seeing them again.
Following a series of catastrophic events that landed her in jail and subsequently rendered her homeless and penniless, the Bachelor of Arts graduate was contemplating ending her life when an XPRESS story changed her fortune.
Within days of the November 17, 2016 news report, hundreds of UAE residents reached out to Zainab offering not just food and money but also moral support and legal assistance.
On December 30, Zainab was reunited with her kids in a heartwarming reunion at Dubai airport. The dramatic turnaround in her life has now inspired a Bollywood movie. But Zainab claims her troubles are far from over. “I want to return to India with my kids and I can do that only when I get my passport. My kids have overstayed their visit visas but I cannot send them back as there is no one to look after them in India,” she said.
‘I’ve taken my case with the Consulate General of India and am hopeful of the outcome,” she added.
