Deliberate omission? Court accepts early hearing plea in ‘missing’ prisoners case

Ansar Burney says India has mysteriously omitted presence of 189 Pakistanis in its jails

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court allowed on Friday a request for early hearing of a petition seeking details of 189 Pakistani prisoners missing in India.

Headed by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, the division bench fixed hearing on the petition for March 15 when it will seek comments of the foreign affairs and interior ministries.

The two nuclear-armed neighbours have a strict visa regime for each other's citizens, and have been detaining people for inadvertently crossing over, especially fishermen who are arrested over allegations of violating maritime borders.

Ansar Burney Trust International, which had approached the court last month, said the Pakistan and Indian governments had on May 31, 2008, signed a bilateral agreement on consular access. Under the treaty, both countries exchange a detailed list of prisoners lodged in each other's prisons twice a year - on January 1 and July 1.

The petitioner said in continuation of the agreement, both the countries exchanged on January 1, 2016 their respective lists of such prisoners through diplomatic channels. "It has transpired that a major difference/discrepancy in the Indian list has been found, as the Pakistani list states that 460 prisoners are lodged in Indian jails while the Indian list confirms only 271 such prisoners, meaning that about 189 Pakistanis are mysteriously missing from Indian jails," states the petition.

The judges were informed that the matter was taken up with relevant Pakistani authorities and reminders were sent to take immediate and timely action on this 'severe' issue by taking up the matter with the Indian government to trace the missing Pakistani nationals before it was too late. "There is grave apprehension that these 189 prisoners may be used in terrorist activities by India, which ultimately would bring a bad name to our country," said the trust's lawyer, Shagufta Burney.

On the last hearing, the deputy attorney general had requested for two weeks to file a response from the federal authorities.

On Friday, Shagufta pleaded the court fix the matter at an early date as it involves a severe violation of fundamental rights as well as a matter of dignity of the missing prisoners, as no serious efforts are being made by the relevant authorities to resolve the mystery. Allowing the request, the bench fixed the hearing for March 15.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2016.