Local Editor

A Pakistani commentator has been jailed in Saudi Arabia and reportedly sentenced to receive 1,000 lashes for allegedly criticizing the Saudi government while on a religious pigrimage.

Hamid reportedly met with a group of Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia and made remarks critical of the kingdom’s policies in neighboring Yemen. Saudi Arabia has been leading airstrikes in Yemen since March-which have not been authorized by the UN. The Saudi attacks have killed more than 2,600 people and injured at least 11,000 in Yemen, according to UN records.

Word of the remarks made their way to Saudi authorities, according to Baqir Sajjad, a journalist in Islamabad who covers the foreign ministry.

Hamid was arrested recently last month [June] in the holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia while traveling with his wife.

The arrest - and the harsh sentence reported by several Pakistani news outlets - was the latest example of swift, severe injustice meted out by Saudi Arabia against those who run afoul of its royal family and the ultraconservative clerics who set the legal and cultural tone for the oil-rich kingdom.

A spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, Qazi Khalilullah, confirmed Hamid’s arrest but said Saudi officials had not disclosed his sentence.

Hamid has also been openly critical of US policies in the region, accusing the CIA of trying to "demolish Pakistan."