NEW DELHI, March 7: Forty-eight Pakistanis are languishing in jails across Indian Punjab even after completing their prison terms. Many of them have not even been granted consular access, which is mandatory under international conventions signed by both Pakistan and India.

According to the Asian Age, 60-year-old Mukhtar Ahmad of Kasur, currently in Amritsar’s high-security central jail, has spent 17 years in prisons across India. He has spent nine years more than his sentence and still there is no sign of his repatriation.

Akbar Ali of Lahore is in Amritsar jail without any hope of release. No one even ponders the prospect of his return to Pakistan because the period of his extra stay is “barely 16 months” since completing sentence in November 2006.

Jail officials told the daily that they were “helpless” and could not release the unfortunate 48 prisoners because they would be “guilty” of violating the Foreigners Act the minute they were permitted to step a foot out of the jail premises. “We have no ulterior interest in retaining these people. But we can only follow the instructions from Delhi,” said Superintendent S.P. Singh.

And past experience shows that Delhi could well remain silent for years.

The apparent lethargy on the part of Indian bureaucracy in processing the cases of the 48 Pakistanis in Amritsar jail is surprising.

Ranjan Lakhanpal, a Chandigarh-based lawyer and civil liberties activist, fought for three years for release of Fida Hussain and five other Pakistanis who had similarly languished in Indian jails years beyond their sentences.

He said the high court in Chandigarh had in 1993 adopted a humanitarian approach and ordered that the prisoners be sent home by the Samjhauta Express with due compensation.

“Today, Fida Hussain and his compatriots are safe, happy and with their loved ones,” the lawyer said, adding that the current bureaucratic position on prisoners was unacceptable under the humanitarian law. “How can we not be concerned about their right to liberty? Aren’t we the ones who are holding them prisoner?” he asked. And he should know after playing a key role in the repatriation of more than 250 Pakistanis from India, the daily reported.—APP