Call it his misfortune or the government's "negligence", Surya Bahadur Nepali has been languishing in a Pakistani jail for more than 15 years "without committing any crime", media reports said in Kathmandu on Tuesday. 

Nepali of Baglung district in western Nepal was robbed of his baggage at a Pakistani airport when he was returning home from Saudi Arabia.

His passport, was among the stolen items and he was arrested on the charge of travelling without proper documents, the Kathmandu Post said. 

His family members accused the Foreign Ministry of "negligence" that left him in a Pakistani jail all these years, The Post said adding, that they had requested the authorities concerned -- the Foreign Ministry, the prime minister and the king -- for Nepali's release from the Pakistani jail. 

"It has been testing times for his parents back in Baglung who have gone from pillar to post to get their son out of jail, but to no avail," the Post said. 

"The family members said they reported the matter to the Foreign Ministry and had completed all the due processes to get his release after Nepali wrote that he was in a Pakistani jail. The ministry demanded $150 for his release three years ago, which the family had provided."

Nepali's parents appealed to King Gyanendra to help their son return home, while the king was on a trip to Baglung, the paper said.  

"I am detained at Kathpak Path Jail in Pakistan's Punjab," Nepali wrote in a letter to his family through the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"I am fine and would return one day to tell all that had happened to me," he said in the letter.