Pakistan, India to swap inmates lists today

Pakistan and India will exchange the lists of civilian prisoners in each other's custody on Monday (today).
The exchange will take place simultaneously through the high commissions of Islamabad and New Delhi.

The lists will be exchanged under the provisions of the Agreement on Consular Access signed between the two countries in 2008.

The agreement requires both India and Pakistan to exchange lists of prisoners in each other’s custody twice a year -- on January 1 and July 1.

According to the list handed to the high commission of Islamabad in New Delhi on July 1, 2023, there were 417 Pakistanis in Indian jails including 74 fishermen.

Similarly, Pakistan had handed over a list of 308 Indian prisoners incarcerated in the country, including 266 fishermen, to the high commission of New Delhi in Islamabad.

The agreement stated that the governments of both countries would provide consular access. This has to be provided within three months to the citizens of one country – under arrest, detention, or imprisonment – in the other.

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Each government undertook to expeditiously inform the other of the sentences awarded to the convicted nationals of the other country. Both governments agreed to release and repatriate persons within one month of confirmation of their national status and completion of sentences.

In case of arrest, detention or sentence made on political or security grounds, each side might examine the matter on its merits. It was also agreed that in special cases, which called for or required compassionate and humanitarian considerations, each side might exercise its discretion subject to its laws and regulations to allow the early release and repatriation of the persons.

Fishermen of both the neighbouring countries are often arrested as they enter the other country’s territories as there is no clear demarcation of the maritime border in the Arabian Sea. Apart from that, the fishermen do not have boats equipped with the technology to know their precise location.

Besides, the Indo-Pak Joint Judicial Committee was formed in 2007.  It is composed of eight retired judges – four each from India and Pakistan – charged with investigating the situation of civilians imprisoned in the jails of the other country and to obtain and facilitate their release -- especially that of fishermen imprisoned for straying across territorial waters.

The committee went into abeyance in 2013, but was revived in 2018.