Senate body told India not granting consular access to 197 Pakistani prisoners

Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affair was informed on Monday that Indian government was not granting consular access to 197 Pakistani prisoners and release 30 other who have completed their sentences, but still languishing in various Indian jails.
Briefing the Committee here on Monday, officials of the Foreign Office said that India was yet to give consular access to 197 Pakistani due to one or other excuse despite several requests. It was told that consular access was necessary to confirm nationality of the prisoners and once the prisoners are confirmed as Pakistanis then they will be provided legal assistance.
The committee, chaired by Senator Haji Adeel, was informed that currently a total of 469 Pakistani prisoners are languishing in different Indian jails which include 164 fishermen and 305 others. While 34 others prisoners who have completed their sentenced were yet not released. Out of the total 34 prisoners, the officials said that 30 are confirmed Pakistani who have completed their sentences, but the Indian government is reluctant to release them.
The officials said that Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi was actively pursuing the cases of the prisoners, but could not get success while the issue was also being discussed at various levels between the two countries. On the insistence of the committee members, the Foreign Office officials informed the panel that there were also several Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails for whom the government could not grant consular access.
The committee members described the move as tit-for-tat and sought complete details of the Indian prisoners in the country's jails and also the reason for not granting the consular access so as to avoid the incidents like Sarabjit Singh and Sanaullah. The panel also asked the Foreign Office to present list of the 30 Pakistanis who have completed their terms and still languishing in Indian jails in its next meeting, besides sending their names to Human Right Committee of the Senate for taking appropriate measures.
The officials assured the committee that the list would be presented before the panel once it was collected from ministry of interior. In his observations, chairman of the committee, said that there were also some Pakistanis who have completed their sentences and now free in India, but they were unable to get Pakistani passport and come back to their homes.
Secretary Commerce Munueer Qureshi briefed the committee over appointment of Trade Officers in the Pakistani Missions abroad. The committee expressed serious reservations over giving 40 percent weightage to written test conducted by Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and 60 percent to interview. The committee recommended that the criteria should be reviewed and policy of strict merit be adopted while appointing the trade officers. The secretary commerce assured the panel that recent appointments of the trade officers were made strictly on merit.