Nuclear installations: India, Pakistan exchange lists

Documents are exchanged on January 1 every year.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan and India on Saturday exchanged lists of their nuclear installations and facilities under an agreement to prohibit any attack by either side.

The lists are exchanged every year on January 1, under the “Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities”, inked by the two sides on December 31, 1988. The agreement is known as one of the best confidence building measures between the two sides that has continued to remain effective despite the status of their ties.

Under the agreement both the parties “refrain from undertaking, encouraging or participating in, directly or indirectly, any action aimed at causing the destruction of, or damage to, any nuclear installation or facility in the other country.”  According to a statement from the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed over the list of Pakistan’s nuclear installations and facilities to an officer of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad at the Foreign Office on Saturday.  The Indian side handed over their list to an officer of the Pakistan High Commission at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi at the same time.

Consular access:  List of prisoners

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday handed over a list of Indian prisoners in Pakistan to the Indian High Commission here, a Foreign Office spokesman said.

The list was handed over under the Agreement on Consular Access signed between Pakistan and India on May 21, 2008, under which both the countries are required to exchange lists of prisoners in each other’s custody on January 1 and July 1 every year, the spokesman said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2nd, 2011.