LHC orders to accelerate extradition of 74 foreign prisoners

Detainees being held despite having completed designated terms.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court chief justice directed the foreign ministry on Wednesday to accelerate the process of the extradition of 74 foreign prisoners, most of them Indian, currently in Punjab’s jails despite having completed their terms.

The chief justice issued this directive while disposing a writ petition filed by Advocate Awais Sheikh seeking the release of two Indian prisoners, Satinder Pal Singh and Karale Bhanudas, confined in the Kot Lakhpat Jail.

Earlier, the Punjab home department, in compliance with court orders, submitted a list of foreign nationals who had completed their jail terms and were still in prison.

The report revealed that 74 foreign nationals were detained in four jails of the province. In the Lahore Central Jail 56 such prisoners were detained, while 16 were in the Central Jail Rawalpindi and one each in the District Jail Kasur and the Dera Ghazi Khan Jail, the report revealed.

Foreign ministry assures support

Representing the foreign ministry, Deputy Attorney General Shaista Qaiser told the court that the ministry will do the needful to expedite the extradition of these foreign prisoners if it was provided a list of all those in prison despite completion of their sentence.

The judge also took an undertaking from Advocate Sheikh that after getting the foreigners released; he would go to India and try to extradite Pakistani prisoners from there.

The chief justice asked the home department to hand over the list to the foreign ministry and directed the ministry to expedite the extradition of these foreign prisoners.

Earlier, Advocate Sheikh had filed a petition stating that two of the prisoners who had completed their term were not being released due to unavailability of proof regarding their identification.

The petitioner said proof of identification had been provided to the foreign office and the Indian High Commission had also verified them. But, he alleged, the Pakistani government had not taken any action for their release so far.

According to the report submitted by the home department, 32 prisoners including four women are from India, 24 from Bangladesh, three from Afghanistan, two each from Iran and Burma, six including one woman from Tanzania, and one each from Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Iraq, South Africa and Dominica.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2011.