‘Let them go’: Secys of interior and foreign affairs to reply in 2 weeks

Wives want spouses released as they have completed their prison terms.

LAHORE:

Justice Shujaat Ali Khan of the Lahore High Court issued notices to secretaries of interior and foreign affairs on Friday on a petition for the release of two Indian prisoners in a Pakistani jail.

Both secretaries were asked to file their replies within two weeks. The judge issued the order on a petition filed by Advocate Awais Sheikh on behalf of Satya Kaur and Kanta Kumari seeking the release of their husbands from Kot Lakhpat Jail.

Sheikh submitted that Kaur and Kumari had given him a power of attorney to seek release of their husbands. The lawyer said he had given an application to the home secretary for permission to meet prisoners Mangal Singh and Ram Das.



Sheikh said he met the two men at Kot Lakhpat Jail.

He said according to the inspector general of prisons Singh had been sentenced to three months rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs1,000 in 2011.

Sheikh said Das had been sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs1,000 in 2011.

Sheikh said both men had completed their terms of imprisonment. He added that their continuous detention was illegal, unlawful and against the principles of natural justice. He said it was also a violation of international law and the Jail Manual.

He prayed the court to direct the inspector general of prisons and the home secretary to produce Singh and Das before the court. He also prayed for a direction to the secretaries of interior and foreign affairs to make arrangements to send them to India.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2013.