23,456 Pakistanis held in jails abroad, Senate panel told

More than 23,000 Pakistanis were currently languishing in foreign prisons, including over 15,000 convicts, the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights was informed on Tuesday.

The foreign ministry presented data of Pakistani prisoners abroad during a meeting, chaired by Waleed Iqbal.
According to the data, 23,456 Pakistani citizens were imprisoned in foreign countries, including 15,587 convicts and 7,869 under-trial prisoners.

The highest number of those Pakistani prisoners was in Saudi Arabia, where 12,156 were languishing in different jails. This is followed by 5,292 prisoners at the United Arab Emirates (UAE) jails. The data further showed that currently 706 Pakistanis were held in Indian jails.

The ministry said that 338 Pakistanis were held in Qatar, 519 in Iraq, 450 in Bahrain, 59 in Kuwait, 308 in Turkey, 255 in Malaysia, 88 in Afghanistan, 100 in Iran and 400 in China.

In the Europe, 811 Pakistani citizens were imprisoned in Greece, 330 in Great Britain, 330 in Italy, besides 44 in the United States.

The committee also discussed the Prisoner Transfer Agreement.

Officials from the foreign ministry and the interior ministry said that Pakistan had prisoner exchange agreement with 11 countries, including Azerbaijan, China, Iran, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey, the UAE and the United Kingdom.

The committee directed the foreign ministry to make a uniform consular protection policy within 90 days.
It also directed the ministry to release the details of the Prisoner Transfer Agreement with various countries on its website.