Pak to let go Indian prisoners

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan may soon release 97 Indian prisoners, who have served their sentences in the country’s different jails, and a formal announcement to this effect is expected during external affairs minister Pranab Muk-herjee’s upcoming visit.

Sources said Islamabad was certain to release the prisoners as a judicial committee comprising retired judges, set up by India and Pakistan to review cases of prisoners who have completed their sentences in both countries, has recommended their immediate release.

The India-Pak joint judicial committee on prisoners has recommended that the two countries exchange lists of each other’s jailed nationals. Sources said hopes of release of the 436 Indian fishermen in Pakistani jails for years have surged as the Pakistan government has already granted consular access to all of them.

Indian authorities have long been pressing Pakistan for such an access so that repatriation of Indian prisoners could be expedited. Government sources said an announcement on Sarabjit Singh’s fate was also on the cards during  Mukherjee’s visit and did not rule out the possibility of Pakistan commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment so that he could eventually be released.

A couple of agreements are expected to be inked during the first high-level contact between Pakistan and India on May 21, 2008, after the installation of the new government in Pakistan.

Mukherjee will hold a review meeting on the fourth round of the composite dialogue with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Islamabad to assess the progress made on the eight subjects covered under the process.

amir.mir1969@gmail.com