Defunct since 2013, India-Pakistan Judicial Commission for Prisoners likely to be revived, MEA sets the ball rolling.
New Delhi: India and Pakistan have decided to revive their judicial commission on prisoners, almost five years after it last held a meeting – a move that comes even as the neighbours are involved in a stand-off over the “harassment” of families of high commission staffers and escalation in tension and cross-border firing on the LoC.
Set up in 2008, the panel comprising eight retired high court judges from the two sides was to recommend steps for humane treatment of each others’ prisoners and fishermen and their expeditious release.
Highly-placed sources told ThePrint that the external affairs ministry has put in motion the process of shortlisting the four members who will represent India on the panel while Pakistan is also said to be carrying out a similar exercise at its end.
“Yes, the decision has been taken. But, the timing of the first visit will be decided once some kind of normalcy returns,” said a source.
The sources said the MEA has also sounded out the earlier members through a letter about its move to restart the process, with the possibility of some of them being retained not ruled out.
The four Indian members in the earlier panel were former Delhi High Court judge M.A. Khan, former Punjab and Haryana High Court judges Amarbir Singh Gill and Amarjeet Chaudhary and former Patna High Court judge Nagender Rai.
The commission was instrumental in securing the release of several prisoners languishing in jails of the two countries, either after the end of their sentence or on minor charges like straying across international waters.
The commission, which is hosted by the two countries on an alternating basis, had held seven meetings so far. While the last one was held in India from October 25-30, 2013, the next meeting was to be held in Pakistan, but the visit never fructified due to several reasons, including a spike in tension on the LoC and International Border.
After the Narendra Modi government assumed office, all talk of reviving the commission was put on the backburner. However, the issue was again discussed at the meeting of the foreign secretaries of the two countries on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia conference in April 2016, where India took the lead in suggesting that the judicial committee should be revived.
However, there was no forward movement until recently and it is only now that the MEA has swung into action.
We should be grateful for small mercies. 2. Once a retaliatory cycle starts, whether it is shelling across the LoC – five members of a family were killed yesterday, two injured – or this harassment of diplomats, in contravention of diplomatic courtesies that predate the Vienna Convention by centuries, it is very difficult to decide what was provocation, what is retaliation. As both nations head into the uncertainty of federal elections, no major breakthrough is possible. However, it should be possible to step back from this wholly avoidable dismantling of diplomatic protocol.