RAWALPINDI, March 18: The Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi bench, on Monday ordered the release of five Palestinians who were convicted by a court for hijacking PanAm plane in 1986, and directed the federal government to make arrangements for their deportation as they have completed their sentence.

A division bench comprising Justice Javed Buttar and Justice Saeed Akhtar, directed the interior ministry to make arrangements for the deportation of the petitioners as they have completed their sentence. The court decided to take up their petition after one month.

The Palestinian hijackers are presently lodged in Adiala jail. They had also demanded of the court to direct the government not to hand them over to FBI for extradition to the United States.

Advocate Tariq Asad, represented the Palestinian hijackers. Out of six Palestinians, five were awarded death, and one life imprisonment. Their death sentence was commuted into life imprisonment in December 1988 when Benazir Bhutto declared general amnesty.

The Palestinian hijackers have also a lot of complaints against Palestinian Ambassador to Pakistan, Ahmad Abdul Razzaq, who is not ready to accept them as Palestinian citizens.

His plea for not accepting them as Palestinian, they stated, was that they had entered into Pakistan carrying Jordanian and Syrian passports, and could not be provided diplomatic passports.

A Pakistani non-governmental organisation, named National Council of Human Rights, have pleaded the case of Palestinian hijackers.

Those undergoing the imprisonment are Mustafa Hasan, Saeed Bomer, Mansoor Al Rashid, Mohammad Abdul Khalil Hassain Al Rahyal and Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahimi al Rahimi.