Friday, August 26 2005 18:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: India has offered to release all those Pakistani prisoners whose nationality has been verified by Islamabad, a Senate Committee in Islamabad was told today (Aug 26, 2005).

Chairman of Pakistan Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mushahid Hussain, said he was informed by Indian High Commissioner Shivshankar Menon that India wanted to release all Pakistani prisoners whose nationality was confirmed by Islamabad.

Hussain stated this during a meeting of the Committee, which took place under the shadow of growing concern in India over the death sentence awarded to Sarabjit Singh on his alleged involvement in the 1990 bomb blasts in Pakistan.

Hussain, who presided over the Committee's meeting, called for exclusively discussing issues relating to prisoners in the light of recent reports in the media here alleging neglect and delaying of prisoners' release due to red-tapism.

He said the Indian offer would facilitate the release of 177 Pakistani prisoners, of the total 611, whose nationality Pakistan Foreign Office stated to have verified.

There was no discussion about Sarabjit Singh in today's meeting. However, Hussain made a passing reference to his case by saying that as India was concerned about the fate of Sarabjit Singh, Pakistan too was concerned about the plight of its prisoners.

Asked to clarify the Indian offer, Menon later said India has been proposing to Pakistan to expedite the release of at least those whose nationalities were confirmed.

At the same time, Pakistan too has 432 Indian prisoners, whose national status has been confirmed by India, Menon said, suggesting that the two countries could immediately release the prisoners who have been identified.

Significantly the Senate Standing Committee, which for the first time permitted the Islamabad-based Indian journalists to cover its proceedings, called for immediate release of Indian and Pakistani prisoners languishing in each other's jails.

Promising to act on concerns expressed by the members, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan, who briefed the Committee on the steps taken, said Interior Secretary Kamal Shah would be going to New Delhi tomorrow to hold talks with his Indian counterpart on Terrorism and Drug Trafficking on August 28 under the second round of the Composite Dialogue process.

In New Delhi, the two Home Secretaries would hold a comprehensive review of the procedures to release prisoners besides the issues relating to Terrorism and Drug Trafficking, he said.

Khan said the talks relating to prisoners would be reviewed by him and his Indian counterpart Shyam Saran when they meet here on September one ahead of the next month's proposed meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.