The governments of Pakistan and India are working on a proposal to release prisoners belonging to a certain category on humanitarian grounds, it emerged on Tuesday.
Officials from both the countries held high-level meetings in the past few weeks to pave the way for the release of the imprisoned Indian and Pakistani citizens belonging to three categories, including prisoners over 70, mentally or physically disabled persons and women inmates.
According to the interior ministry and Foreign Office documents, India’s Ministry of External Affairs had recently summoned the Pakistani high commissioner to New Delhi and recommended speeding up the prisoners’ exchange programmme between the two countries.
Last year, a meeting was also held between the National Security Advisors (NSAs) of India and Pakistan in Bangkok on December 26, where both the parties agreed to release the prisoners, belonging to the above-mentioned categories, on humanitarian grounds. Furthermore, the NSAs also agreed to revive the Pakistan-India Joint Judicial Committee on Prisoners which had remained inactive since October 2013.
It was also decided between the representatives of both the countries that a list of disabled and elderly prisoners would be prepared at the earliest. For this purpose, a delegation of doctors and medical experts would travel to each other’s countries to examine the mental and physical health of prisoners before forwarding recommendations for their release.
Sources inside the interior ministry revealed that 40 Pakistani nationals languishing in Indian prisons could be released after the agreement was finalised.
